We couldn’t put it off any longer. It was time to turn around. Today was the day we had been dreading. We have gone as high as we can (or dare to) on The Cape York Peninsula and now the bonnet of the car will pointing in the opposite direction. Our plans to explore further inland to the Queensland outback will mean that the bonnet points sideways for a while, but not to the North again. Sad but true!

We had over 300km to travel today to reach Mossman which we will make our base to explore the Daintree and Cape Tribulation.  

We are very used to the long drives and this morning Caleb begged for me to continue reading an Andy Griffiths book that we started recently. It wasn’t long before we were all giggling together and Caleb willingly read his share. 

As we were driving I kept feeling little bugs flying out of the air vents and landing on me. I ignored the first few and then closed the air conditioning vents as it became more annoying. Ray wasn’t getting any on his side, so I tried to ignore it as I read aloud. Soon, the extra laughing from the back seat didn’t match the plot of the story and I grew suspicious. I turned around in time to catch Caleb red handed. He was breaking off tiny bits of twig from a stick he had and was throwing them at me. He was thrilled to have “pranked” me for so long without me latching on to what he was doing. Sometimes I think I am a constant source of entertainment for Ray and Caleb. (Ray says now I have to mention the “blonde” moment I recently had). Here it is. 

When we arrived in Cooktown it seemed that everyone we spoke to mentioned going to the tip. That it was expensive, but had great views. I fleetingly wondered why you had to take your own rubbish to the tip, the caravan parks usually took care of that. It wasn’t until days later when Ray said something about the fact we didn’t get to the tip, that the penny dropped. The “tip” referred to the tip of Australia. Just another one of those moments. 

We continued our journey, Ray requesting ABBA and singing it loudly. We pulled over on the side of the road for an emergency toilet stop for Caleb and Ray continued to sing and dance along outside the car. The passing traffic received a real treat or a shock, depending in their viewpoint.