After a couple of days at the beach it was time for another quite unique region: the Tablelands west of Cairns. That’s where the outback meets rainforest and creates a green, but still sparse landscape. The region is quite a bit higher above sea level so the nights are comfortably cool.
Granite Gorge, located on private land as it seems, offers a nice camp site and you can feed the little rock wallabies that live between the granite blocks which gave the gorge its name. You can also do a short walk past some interestingly shapes rocks to swimming holes but there wasn’t much water so it was not really inviting.
From Granite Gorge we followed the road south past Dinner Falls and The Crater, a lake deep below the lookout. The area is known for its waterfalls and near Millae Millae along the waterfall circuit you can actually visit four of them in beautiful countryside which almost resembles the alps. Near Lake Eacham a friendly farmer let us stay on one of his
paddocks, in the morning we had breakfast at the lake and a quick swim to wake up. After a coffe at the nearby Lake Barrina we drove along Danbulla road which basically runs around Lake Tinaroo and leads to a couple of beautiful camp sites at the lake (btw. although Lonely Planet says you need a 4WD it’s actually a very easy dirt road). On the way we came past some impressive fig trees (Cathedral and Curtain) and saw a Cassowary with its little chick crossing the road in front of us.
Looking for a place to sleep we decided to drive back towards Cairns. A place called Mission bay sounded interesting but when we actually arrived in Yurabarah it turned out to be an Aboriginal community! No white men there, people living in houses in the forest and at the beach, some burnt ruins and fires glowing in the forests … quite an experience and a bit too scary for some members of the party so instead of putting our tent up we headed back to Cairns and checked into the Northern Greenhouse (where Lee and Leigh had their water fight) and ran into a couple from the snorkeling trip. The world is so small and at the same time so big …
The next day we swapped the Hyundai for another Wicked van and booked our Whitsunday/Fraser Island package. When we finally left Cairns it was already late afternoon and drove only a short while to a place called Babinda. A guy we had met at Granite Gorge had told us about it and here we actually bumped into him again! What did I just say about the size of the world?
It’s actually a place similar to Mossman Gorge which offers five free camp sites, toilet facilities and a nice swim in the river | See the pictures

New pics of the Whitsundays, Cairns and surroundings and Fraser Island | See the pictures

Some more pics from the third part of the trip, Darwin and the Top End. Looks like uploading just finished so go ahead and enjoy!
Or read on … sitting in the Youth Shack here in Darwin, trying to recover from a rather big night out at Discovery Club, definitely worth to go there, even on a Sunday night there was party till 4am and we met many people we had seen before such as the chaos crew from England with those I-want-them-too-accents. I love it how you can say fuck and it still sounds posh … would love to hear the Queen swear one day.
Had also a few drinks with some guys and girls from France, Grenoble actually, last night. Had met them earlier already a couple of times during the trip through Kakadu and Litchfield (basically wherever we stopped, they seemed to be, too) but never really talked to them. But they went on to Thailand today so it was their last night in Australia! We celebrated a lot, having Chartreuse shots and rum cokes … my gorge throat is still sore thinking back … uaah! But it was great fun and only knowing them for this one night really was great! Who knows, might see them at some point in France …
Tonight we’ll probably head out for dinner somewhere with David, could join the Brits at the Casino. And then it’s another good-bye for us, off to Cairns tomorrow early morning! Has been a great time in the Northern Territory, met lots of good people and did cool stuff. Now the east coast is waiting | See the pictures