We have reached the tropical Northern Queensland. And suddenly everything is SO GREEN. And I realize that this is my favourite colour. It makes me happy, it calms me, I just can’t get enough. All these beautiful shades of green in the rainforest. It is so totally different from the landscapes we have been driving through the last months! Not that I didn’t love each and every one of them, it probably just comes as a shock to me.
On the way to Port Douglas, where we are staying now, we stopped at a few special places. Probably one of the most remarkable ones was Undara National Park. The park contains the remains of the Earth’s longest flow (160 km) of lava originating from a single volcanic crater. The volcanic activity that formed the lava tubes occurred around 189’000 years ago, when the volcano Undara expelled massive amounts of lava onto the surrounding areas. It then developed a continuous and hard crust, which thickened and formed a roof above the still-flowing lava stream. We visited Stephenson Cave, one of several lava tubes that remain today, and The Arch, a short section that did not collapse. Quite impressing I must admit walking through these tunnels, 15 metres high and almost 20 metres wide.
The next few days we spent in the Atherton Tableland, a fertile plateau which is part of the Great Dividing Range. We became quickly aware of the fact that we were on a highland, since it suddenly got much cooler, and we even had fog and drizzling rain.
We visited several of the small national parks, many of them remnants of the rainforest which once covered the entire area, before the timber cutters arrived. They feature crater lakes, waterfalls and massive trees like the Curtain Fig Tree, with roots that drop 15 metres to the ground.
With our birthdays coming up, we decided quite spontaneously to book an apartment in Port Douglas, the next destination on our route. It was a bit like coming home: this is where we spent Christmas 2013 in the very beginning of our first trip to Australia. As much as we love travelling with our car, sleeping outside and being out in nature, it is very pleasant to have a little comfort for a few days! So this is what we’ve done the last days: nothing much. Celebrating birthdays, hanging around the pool, shopping, walking along the beach, going out for dinner and getting another service for our car. Quite nice for a change.
We also become more and more aware of the fact that our trip is eventually coming to an end. It is a somehow scary thought to me, not really knowing how I will react once we get home. Will we be restless? Will we feel locked in after being outside for months? How will we cope with the lack of sun? But I am confident as well. We will manage to adopt again, friends, family and work will help us returning to our normal life. Time will show…
But first we are ready for hitting the road again and explore Cape York Peninsula!
RCD on Walkabout 