We wake to a beautiful day up on the Cape with the sounds of galahs and cockatoos down on the riverbank near our campsite at Archer River Roadhouse. Today we make our way to Cairns some 600 kilometres away. The trip should take about 10 hours. We ready early and on the road hoping to see some of the wildlife that the north has to offer.

The crew caught up and overtook us on the sometimes sandy, six lane wide, long stretches of corrugated road. By the time we had got to Musgrave Station we were `tail-end Charlies' enjoying ourselves. After Musgrave we were in new territory, as we had not covered this stretch on the way up.

It was about Healy Creek that we caught up to Cameron and Ricki doing some bush mechanics with Arnold, Pat and Michelle parked under a tree having a cuppa. The car had bent a locating rod (silly car!) and they had it off to straighten when we arrived. We pushed on believing they would be back on the road soon.

Hann River Roadhouse was the next stop and as we waited for the remainder of the convoy it was decided to make this our lunch stop. The scenery to this point had been scrubby, dry bush vegetation with a few head of cattle.

From Hann River we headed toward Palmer River. Along the way we came upon a northbound truck with mechanical problems. Marilyn & I stopped so I could give him a hand, meantime stopping a southbound vehicle to pass word to the rest of the crew as we were out of radio range. The accelerator linkage on the fuel pump had come adrift on the truck. This truck was carrying maintenance equipment for the communication systems at the Weipa airport. The driver came from Taigum, once again proving that it is a small world.

On the road again and travelling through Laura and Lakeland to Palmer River where we expected to catch up with the crew - they had not long left we were informed by the attendant. Cool drinks and back on the road, but this time we are on that black stuff. Over to Mount Carbine then we climbed the Desailly Range to Bob's Lookout with its spectacular views. Leaving Mount Carbine we headed for Mount Molloy. Here you can turn left to take the back road to Cairns, but not this time. We press onto Mareeba where we refuelled then we headed to Cairns to find the crew parked at the viewing platform below Kuranda. The views were spectacular even though it was getting late in the day. Into town to set up camp, boy was there stories to be told of the day! The younger, more energetic of the crew headed out to party in civilisation while the more mature sat around the camp resting.

Thursday saw us board the "Compass "for a trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. It was possibly the worst move of the whole trip, but we took the chance on the weather - wrong. By the time we had left the dock it was not looking good. In true Subaru driver style we right footed forward and tried to enjoy the day. The waves were breaking over the bow of the boat and hitting the back deck some 25 metres away. We moored at the reef and tried to swim. Five minutes in the water felt like I had done 40 laps of a twenty five metre pool. They then bought out lunch, fresh chicken salad. Well we had quite a few people who had not travelled well on the trip out so for those who could eat it was an unlimited supply of food for lunch (plenty for us).

The trip in was just as bad but at least we had the thought that once we had landed it would be all over - dry land yippee!!

Friday morning saw Cameron & Ricki, Ray & Steve, Graeme & Julie hit the road for home while Peter & Doug, Arnold, Pat & Michelle and Marilyn and I were to spend the day looking at Kuranda. Pat, Michelle, Marilyn & I took the train ride while Doug & Peter took the Skyrail. Arnold chose to drive up to Kuranda as he had done this trip on a previous visit. We had a very enjoyable day wandering through the markets etc. Once back in Cairns we ventured to Port Douglas to spend the night in a very pleasant caravan park on the outskirts of the town.

Saturday saw our reduced crew travel to the Mossman Gorge National Park via the Mossman township to vote. We arrived early at the Gorge and spent an enjoyable few hours wandering along the tracks and taking in the spectacular rainforest views - quite a difference from the top end. A few decided to have a swim in the icy waters of the gorge - Michelle made a lifelong friend of one of the locals. He was a real sweetie.

After lunch we headed to Mt Molloy taking in more of the spectacular views of the coast from the hills. Back through Mareeba to Atherton where we found they were enjoying their annual "Foodfest". The food was almost finished but we did manage to find something for afternoon tea. It was here that we said cheerio to Arnold, Pat and Michelle as they were heading down to the Undarra Lava Tubes and home. This left Doug, Peter, Marilyn & I to roam the country a bit more.

We headed over to the small village of Malanda to set camp. After setting up we decided to take a walk in the nearby National Park. The Caravan Park backed onto the Malanda falls and the national park entry was across the road. It was late afternoon and we were quietly enjoying our stroll along the riverbank when a fellow Subaru owner and tour operator who uses his Subaru and a Toyota Coaster to take parties on Ecological tours motioned for us to be very quiet. He went on to explain that if we watched quietly we would possibly see a platypus that he had been following down river for some distance, and observing for some days. Luck was with us as the platypus playfully swam past our point and amused us for a few minutes. Peter managed to catch this magic moment on video. Lots of tiny turtles also in the river and obviously quite used to human visitors.

Camping in this area for two nights gave us a taste of an area we would love to go back to for a more extended stay. The waterfalls in the area were quite amazing and all very different. The Atherton Tablelands may be touristy but this should not deter visitors from enjoying some of the most diversified scenery and life forms found in Northern Australia.

Some of the interesting places like Tinaroo Dam, the Cathedral fig, the Curtain fig along and the giant Kauri tree. The beautiful Lake Barrine area was used as a hospital area during the 2nd world war. This area was also a jumping off point for troops going overseas during the war.

One lookout we found was called Gentle Annie, just out of Milla Milla, we were there admiring the view and lucky (as the locals say) to see Queensland's tallest mountain come out of the clouds - Mount Bartle Frere 1612 metres. Over the next couple of days we managed to see Queenslands biggest, widest and longest drop waterfalls with lots in between.

From Atherton we travelled to the Undarra Lava Tubes. We managed to do two tours ‑ the afternoon tour was through a couple of the lava tubes with the history of the area explained. The tubes formed during a volcanic eruption that allowed the lava to flow along a riverbed, the inside kept flowing while the outside cooled creating a tubal effect. There is approximately 65 kilometres of tubes across the national park area and over time there has been various cave-ins making it accessible to enter these areas. The sunset tour took us to a lookout to view the extinct volcanos and cave-in areas. The cave-ins were visible as dark green rainforest pockets throughout the landscape. We experienced the whole Savana landscape and watched the sun set over the area whilst enjoying champagne and nibbles. Once the sun had set we toured to the entrance of a cave and experienced the bats leaving by the thousands on a food forage. It was incredible to stand at the entrance of the cave and feel these tiny creatures ,fly past without touching anyone.

I was being `normal' and mentioned to the receptionist that Marilyn and I were on our honeymoon and Doug & Peter were my nephews. If you hear them call me "Uncle Ralph 'you will now understand. We passed another guided tour group and the discussion led to me telling them that the reason for the camera and video was that they were a wedding present to us and the "nephews" had to come along to record our honeymoon!!!!

Prior to leaving the area we walked up the side of one of the extinct volcanos and I toured around the rim. The view was magnificent.

On leaving this area we headed for Townsville. We picked a road down to the coast that would bring us out at Ingham where we were able to take a detour to Wallaman Falls (the longest drop falls). The road was through the Valley Of Lagoons, a remarkable area with incredible waterways. The road leading in was very dry and the oasis appeared. On one of the lakes we counted at least 12 different varieties of birds. We saw wild pigs, kangaroos, emus, lizards and one snake.