Day 110 / 2016 - Mission Beach to Walkamin

We are now driving our final leg to our base for the next three months on the Atherton table lands in North Queensland.

Leaving Mission beach we headed back to the Bruce Hwy and Tully. Our plan is to free camp in Tully for one night then drive to Walkamin the following day. The rain was quite heavy and the forecast was rain for the next 3 days so we decided to drive up onto the tablelands today and park at Rocky Creek for the night then make our way into Walkamin the next day.

Passing through Innisfail the rain was still coming down quite heavy in places making it difficuilt to even see the road. Turning left up the Palmerston Hwy and heading up the hill the rain got even heavier. The road was quite busy with trucks as the army were also on the move.

The Palmerston Hwy is different from driving the Gillies or Kuranda not as winding but it was still steep in places. Finally reaching the top the rain had lightened a little but it wasn't untill we reached Malanda that the rain finally started to stop.

Rocky Creek is a popular rest area but not busy at this time of year. We tried to find an easy to park on level spot without much success. Most of the campers were long termers most likely working on the farms. Although the area is only 72 hours some of the tents looked like they had been there a while. I think the local authority turns a blind eye at this time of year but when the busy tourist season kicks in I think a more careful eye is kept and all campers are moved on after 72 hours.

To set the caravan up level would mean getting levelling blocks out and unhitching the van and for a 1 night stop it didn't seem worth it so Anne called Greg and Margaret and asked if we could come a day earlier which they happily obliged. We drove the extra 5 km the their place and spent the afternoon setting up then catching up with a few drinks and nibbles.

We also caught up with Frank and Alice for Brunch at their place. It was good to see them again and the conversation mainly revolved around our up and coming trip to New Zealand in October. The following day we drove Greg and Margaret down to Cairns airport. It was a help to them but also helped us as we wanted to learn how to get there and where we needed to go.