Today, temporarily, we moved away from the coast, and headed up into the Atherton Tablelands, which is a raised plateau just inland from Cairns. The drive up took us from the lush, green coast through an 800m winding climb, to a semi-arid area, dominated by red soil and termite mounds. Normally it is a lot cooler than the coast, but as we arrived there we found it had hit an unseasonal high of 41-degrees. Fortunately it is a lot drier than the coast – which is very humid – so in the shade it was still cool, whereas on the coast there’s no escape from the heat.

On the drive we passed “The Big Peanut”, but sadly I was driving so fast I couldn’t stop to take a photo – I know that will spoil your day! Anyway, we headed to Yungaburra, a village in the middle of the Tablelands, with a fantastic hostel. We are going to sleep in the carpark, and use the hostel facilities – which costs us $20, about the same as a caravan park. We have very fond memories of last time we stayed here, and tomorrow we’re going to be having an ‘activity-tastic’ day.