We left our motel in the rainforest and crossed the Daintree River on the ferry again. It runs from 6am to midnight.

There is no mains electricity north of the river and solar power and generators provide what is needed. Back on the road to Mossman we were accompanied by electricity cables. We took Highway 44 from Mossman to Mount Molloy, a road that winded uphill to Mowbray National Park. The first gap in the hills providing a viewpoint, also provided a gap for the power lines and had a plaque commemorating the date the gravel road was completely bitumen: in 1982. At the second viewpoint which had a somewhat better view, we met a guy walking his dog who said that this was the first cloudy day for months.

Mount Molloy was named after a farmer who found the copper out crop while searching for a stray bullock. We joined Highway 81 near here which is also known as the Mulligan Highway. The road was named after James Venture Mulligan who found many of the mining fields in Northern Queensland.

We drove through bushland which had been on fire very recently, some logs were still smoking. We passed Lake Mitchell and arrived in Mareeba. Appropriately it was coffee time. Mareeba has arabica coffee plantations and 70% of Australian coffee is grown here. It was also the place where the world’s first mechanical harvester was developed. The biggest crop used to be tobacco but now there are mango, banana, papaya and nut orchards and a liqueur distillery and a tea plantation. It has a reputation as a bit of a cowboy town and you can certainly buy all your gear here and attend the annual rodeo. The travel agent was advertising trips to Calgary Stampede. There were also a couple of holistic and natural therapy shops which might be bucking the trend.

At the southern end of the town we re-joined Highway 1 now the Kennedy Highway and continued to Atherton. It has a population of more than 7,000 and sits at 752 metres on the Atherton Tableland. Atherton was noted for production of timber and tin. At one point it had a large Chinese community who worked in gold mines in the late 19th century until the gold ran out. Some turned to timber and market gardens and their temple has been restored. The road continued climbing up the slopes of Mount Hypipamee and over passes at 1008m and 1113m. Just before Ravenshoe, we passed the appropriately named Windy Hill Wind Farm which we had seen in the distance earlier and the first we had seen in Australia. Ravenshoe is Queensland’s highest town at 913m. From here, Highway 1 is called Savannah Way. We were surrounded by bush littered with red rocks. At Mount Garnet we had lunch watched by a couple of magpies and these birds:

Further west the rocks were lighter and then black. Near Forty Mile Scrub we saw our first road train with three trailers. All the others we have seen so far, have had two trailers. At the junction with Highway 62 Highway 1 became Gulf Developmental Road. I had wondered what this was and soon discovered it. Our road soon began to have single lane sections.

Just before another one, we spotted a truck ahead, so we stopped at the end of the two-lane section and waited for him to pass. Just as well, as he was carrying explosives! The bush now had what looked like the tops of rock pinnacles sticking out of the grass.

Nearer to Karumba some of those near the road had been dressed with clothes or painted. The temperature had topped 34 degrees that day and our mileage so far had reached 2572 miles when we reached Georgetown where we were spending the night. This is just over the length of Route 66 driven five years ago. The next morning we woke to a blue sky and set out on a quiet road. We did not see another vehicle for the first 48 km. We did however, see a cow cross the road:

followed by several wallabies, an Australian Bustard and a snake. We also interrupted numerous raptors who were feeding on dead wallabies. We drove over the Gilbert River which was completely dry except for one small pool. Croydon was the coffee stop and it has some older buildings. Gold was discovered here in 1888 and there are said to be some deep seams that have never been excavated.

Further on we passed three guys rounding up cattle with motorbikes. Quad bikes would not get around the bush here. After crossing the railway we entered Carpentia County which has a population of only 2500. Normanton was a supply stop before lunch at Mutton Hole Wetlands. In the wet season numerous birds are here but the only water was on the river and some small pools. These crows watched us as we ate.

On the road to Karumba we were out of bush into grassland. A large folk of Brolgas were by a roadside ditch.

We soon found our motel by Karumba Beach.

The mileage today was 239 bringing the total to 2,701.