The next morning, we drove to Cardwell and stopped at a day use area, where we found a bunch of food trucks. One of them sold pies, kind of a traditional Australian dish. Patrick got one with beef, bacon and cheese. Jele went for the spinach and ricotta pastry. They were awesome! So, if you ever pass by Cardwell, go to the day use area and get one of the pies!
This was our breakfast :D. Ready for some adventures, we started driving on the Cardwell forest drive. Our first stop was the Attie Creek Falls. A 700m walk up the hill leads you to the top. When we got there, there was barely any water flowing. What a pity! Still, we found a nice spot right on the edge of a fall, where we sat down and flew the drone for a bit, before heading back down.
We continued the drive and the corrugations of the dirt road became worse and worse. Almost felt like driving up to Cape York 😉. The next stop were the Cardwell Spa Pools. Jele was really looking forward to this stop, because she already saw lots of beautiful photos online!
When you get there you only have to walk down a few steps and there is the pool. The little round spa pool was almost empty. There was only a bit of blackish water inside and it looked very dirty. The big pool next to it is really blue and looked a lot better but still, there was no water running, so there could be bad bacteria in it. The colourtone looked different from every angle.
We flew the drone for a bit and wanted to have a look from the bird perspective, but it wasn’t blue from the top! It looked really dark and not how we imagined it to look like!
Very disappointing! But maybe, only because it was really cloudy and rainy every now and then with no sun out at all.
The stop after the spa pools was Murray Falls. When we got there, we saw a Cassowary running around the camping area. So cool!
It’s a really short walk to the lookouts where you have a beautiful view over the waterfall. Finally, there was a lot of water running and it looked so nice!
A bit further down you can swim in the river (without crocs). Patrick jumped in and Jele sat down on a wide rock in the middle of the river. Really beautiful and relaxing place! The water mirrored the trees and made it look even more beautiful.
We hit the road again and stopped in Tully, trying to decide where we’re gonna go next. We agreed on skipping Tully Gorge, since it would have been lots of extra kilometers and not much to do. We weren’t far from Mission Beach, so this was our next stop. We parked right next to the beach and made dinner before going to sleep.
The following day we got up somewhat early and did the Fan Palm walk. The dirt road to the Licuala day use area is really narrow but so cool as it cuts through dense rainforest making for a spectacular kilometer drive. There were some really nice fan palm canopy views along the walk. On our way to another walk at Lacey Creek, we saw a Cassowary walking right next to the street!!!! WOW!
Cassowaries are endangered and can only be found in certain areas of the rainforest. The other walk we did is supposed to be the Cassowary walk. You can find lots of information about them and their food, but sadly we couldn’t spot one there.
After the walk we drove to Mission Beach and saw a little fruit stall right next to the street, selling local bananas and they were kinda cheap as well.
We grabbed a bunch and made a shake for brekkie, before heading on to Bicton Hill to walk to the first lookout. At the start of the walk we saw a spider hanging by a thread in the air, and all of a sudden a wasp came out of nowhere and tackled it midair. After a quick chase on the ground with an ensuing battle, the wasp seemed to have gotten the better of the spider despite the spider being bigger. The wasp just folded in all the spider’s legs and off it flew. At the lookout you could see a beach in between the trees but that was it. Nothing too spectacular.
Patrick really wanted to see another Cassowary! We heard there is one walking around at the beach at Etty Bay, so we jumped back into the van and drove another 40 min to the Bay. The Beach was beautiful. We walked along the beach and the main road but couldn’t spot the Cassowary ☹. There were a few signs warning about the stingers, crocodiles and the cassowaries though. We had lunch in the van and tried our luck again afterwards. All we found were a few swings hanging off the trees, which was great fun as well!
After swinging around, we left Etty Bay and headed to Innisfail for some diesel and groceries before stopping at Babinda Boulders. It’s a short walk that follows a riverbed with a few lookouts. Luke and Claire (vanlifestraya) were in Babinda as well, at a free campground, so we decided to join them, BECAUSE we were going on a big hike the day after!!!
That evening we made Kässpätzle, a Swabian (south German) dish. We had dinner all together and ate a lot haha. After dinner it was time to go to sleep, because we wanted to start hiking up Mount Bartle-Frere, which is the highest mountain of Queensland, at 6:30am. We got up at 5:45, prepared food and drinks for the walk and drove to the Josephine Falls carpark, where the walk begins. Online the estimated time given was 12 hours, but we read comments, that people did it in 10! We started the hike at 6:55am and were aiming to be up the mountain within 4 hours. You have to know that this is a 7.5 km hike and a steep one, 1500m in elevation change (Patrick left out that minor detail when describing the hike to Jele).
The walk started alright. A bit of an up and down, some creek crossings, where you can refill your water bottle, and a nice little waterfall on the way.
Every km (besides number 2) there are signs, showing how far you got. We made it to 3 and that’s when it slowly became steeper and there were lots of roots on the path. Once you get to 4, you have to take a deep breath and be prepared for a really long and exhausting kilometer. IT TOOK FOREVER!!!! We had to take several short breaks and were hoping to see the 5 soon but it took forever! Our legs were burning, our feet got tired, there were leeches everywhere (they especially liked Jeles feet/ankle and kept sucking her blood through her socks) and it was a mental thing dragging your body up the mountain. After a while (felt like 10km later) we found the sign with number 5 on it! Between kilometer 5 and 6 it was a tiny little bit better, but still a mental path! CRAZY! At kilometer 6 we knew there will be boulders we have to climb through before getting to the 7. After around 6.5km we got to this rock field and started climbing up the boulders. The path afterwards was really narrow, and we already saw that we are walking in the clouds. And then we finally made it up to the shelter, where you can stay overnight if you want to and the helicopter platform right next to it. Jele wished she could get picked up by the heli :D! It was another 500m to the actual peak, so we kept walking and came to another field of boulders with some support rails, so you could get from one boulder to another a bit easier (still not easy). After the boulders we came to a path again and then to a very steep part where you have to climb up the roots almost vertically! After another few hundred kilometers, we made it! WE MADE IT TO THE TOP OF MOUNT BARTLE-FRERE!!!! 1622m above sea level. In the end it took us 4 hours to get up there, which is quite good.
We were still in the clouds, so we couldn’t see anything, and it was really cold and windy as well. We walked back to the shelter and had lunch in there. Suddenly Patrick saw that we could see the trees at the peak (which we couldn’t before, because of the cloud), so Jele ran outside, climbed onto the helicopter platform and that’s when we finally had a really nice view. She made Patrick and Luke come outside, so we got at least a little bit rewarded for the climb!
We were really exhausted but still had to climb all the way down again (7.5km), a bit scary! We started heading down and after a few hundred meters we already wished to be back down :D, but we had to keep going. The section between kilometer 5 and 4 was the worst again and a bit slippery as well. Our legs were so tired we could barley lift them over the logs, laying on the path, anymore. These kilometers seemed to be way longer than just 1000 meters!!! Once we got to kilometer 3, we could slowly hear the creek running again. That’s a good sign, because it means, we are getting closer to the bottom! After number 3 it took forever, again, and there is no sign with a number 2. Still, we hoped, that we would have missed the sign with number 1 on it, but then it came. ANOTHER KILOMETER!!!! And there were so many little creek crossings we couldn’t remember from the way up. Every meter felt horrible!!!!
After 4 hours we made it back down. Finally! It was the best feeling, taking off the hiking boots. We had multiple blood stains on our socks from the leeches…
There will definitely be a highlight video about this insane hike!
Luke sat down in front of our van and we got ready for the waterfall, which was another 1.4km walk :D, but we knew it’s a nice one! The walk wasn’t difficult at all but still didn’t feel very nice. We got to the fall and saw a nice rock pool that even had a really nice rockslide.
We took off our clothes and jumped into the water in our bathing suits. It was cold but felt soooooooo refreshing after the hike. Incredible! We swam to the other side, climbed up the rocks and walked over to the start of the rockslide. It looked like fun! One, two, three and here we go, sliding down the rocks! It was so fun, that we did it again, straight away!
We didn’t wanna let Luke wait for us for too long, so we headed back. By now, he even made it into the van and made himself comfortable on one of our back seats.
We drove back to the free camp in Babinda, where Claire was already waiting for us.
Jele was really looking forward to the hot shower the campground offered! For 4 bucks she could have an 8-minute shower, which was needed and worth every penny, after the hike! We had leftovers for dinner and went to bed early. Jele was so tired, she even fell asleep before Patrick was done with his second round of dinner.
We were not looking forward to the next morning, waking up in pain :D. Jele got up quite early and could already feel her legs. She made coffee and brekkie and talked to the others, cause there was no way of getting Patrick out of bed by then. At around 9 or 9:30 he finally made it. He had sore legs as well! :D. Since Claire and Luke (vanlifestraya) had a problem with their power, Patrick tried to fix it, before we all walked to the bakery in Babinda. Got ourselves some pies and pastries, which were great!
Vanlifestraya had to go to Cairns that day, and we decided to chase waterfalls! Our first stop were the Nandroya Falls. A 4.4 km walk (return) leading to the fall. The closer we got to the waterfall, the more stairs we found, and they felt really good with our sore legs 😉. On the way to Nandroya Falls, there is another waterfall, called Silver Falls. A beautiful little waterfall. We made it to the actual one, which was a beautiful place. A round ‘swimming hole’ in a bowl shaped canyon with a nice, tall waterfall. We flew the drone and walked back to ZIP.
In the Atherton Tablelands there is a waterfall drive. A stretch of 10 kilometers, where you can stop at 3 different waterfalls. We did the drive and our first stop were the Ellinjaa Falls. A short walk with lots of stairs, lead us down to the fall. You can walk along the rocks in the water to get closer to the waterfall. This was an absolute beauty!!! Patrick walked in the water, even closer to the waterfall. We loved this one!
The following stop were the Zillie Falls. A wet and muddy path goes down to the lookout and the bottom of the waterfall. It was very slippery and a lot of fun with sore legs. At the end you have to climb down another boulder and that’s, where you have a nice view.
Patrick took off his shoes and walked through the riverbed to the other side, climbed up the boulders, until he was standing right next to the waterfall. What he didn’t think of before, was, that he could get completely wet from them mist :D. He came back to Jele and we walked up the muddy path again.
The last fall of the drive was the Milla Milla fall, probably the most popular one. We knew, that if you drive down to the Bus parking (we could count as a bus), we can see the waterfall out of the backdoor of the van. That’s what Jele wanted, laying in bed, watching the waterfall…perfect!
Patrick got changed and walked down to the bottom of the fall. There is a nice swimming hole, where he jumped into and swam under the fall.
After the waterfall drive, we headed further inlands to the Big Millstream Falls. It’s just a short walk to the lookout. This fall is actually rumored to be the widest single drop waterfall of Australia. It looked beautiful so we got the drone out and checked out the area from above.
The sun was already about to set, but since Patrick saw a sign saying, that there are hot springs close by, we went back to the van and drove to the springs. By then it was already dark.
We parked in front of a caravan park, which was right next to the Nelly river. We got out of the van and walked down to the ‘river’ It is a stony riverbed and not too much water flowing but you could already feel the heat when getting closer. There were several little pools, every pool with a different temperature. Patrick started digging a hole so we would have a nice pool, where we can lay down while Jele poured some glasses of wine. Such a perfect spot! We layed down in the pool of hot water and looked at the stars, what do you want more? Also, this was a perfect regeneration for our sore legs, they felt like new again afterwards 😉.
We actually only wanted to bathe in there for a bit, but just couldn’t leave again, because it was too nice, so we ended up laying in there for two hours! We slept on a free campground close by, cause we were already a bit tired.
The next day, we drove to the little Millstream falls, because we skipped them on the day before. It’s just a short walk from the carpark and you can see the falls. They were nice but the water looked a bit crocy :D.
Our next stop was the Tully Gorge lookout. It was a nice drive through the rainforest, and you get rewarded with an amazing view. Check it out! Can you spot the heart?
There is a 1.4 km walk through the rainforest, leading to the waterfall (which is not really running anymore since they built a dam). At the end of the walk you can find some rocks, which we had to climb on obviously! Patrick wanted to go all the way to the fall… . It was a beautiful view and there was even a little infinity rock pool. Sadly, the water was stagnant and not running so we didn’t jump in it.
This was our last sightseeing stop inlands. We walked back to ZIP and drove all the way to Gordonvale, which is a bit south of Cairns. There is a free campground with a dump point, we had to use. Some of the other vanlifers were there as well :D. We keep bumping into each other along the road!
We dumped our toilet and decided to drive to Cairns, because it was Friday afternoon and we had two parcels waiting for us (one of the post offices is always closed during weekends). We picked up the parcels (Jele was super happy!), went to the shops and then parked at the Esplanade. We’ve been to Cairns last year, same time of the year, and really like it there. We got the longboards out, took our shower stuff with us and started cruising along the Esplanade.
That was fun! Suddenly it started raining, which it does quite a lot lately, but it didn’t stop us from jumping into the lagoon.
The lagoon is an infinity pool right next to the beach, because you can’t swim in the ocean (crocs waiting for you) :D. Next to the pool is a toilet and shower block. Jele read online, that there are two-minute hot showers! We tried it out and Jele came out of the shower super happy, cause she obviously had a hot shower, but Patrick, somehow, only had cold water coming out of the tap! We went back to the van and drove to the free campground where the others stayed as well.
Since Lukes birthday was the day after, we decided to celebrate into it. The boys drank Whiskey and we played a round of Wizard. Suddenly people were walking around in torches outside, because one of the girls lost her car keys. This is deffo no fun, because our vans are our homes and mean everything to us! Almost half of the campground helped looking for the keys. In the end, they were hidden inside the van.
The next morning, we got up and went to a little market. We strolled around and drove back to Cairns afterwards. We had to do some more shopping and wanted to go to the Crystal Cascades. It is a beautiful waterfall with a bunch of smaller falls and rock pools. We put on our swimsuits and walked up to the fall, where we jumped into the water and swam closer to the drop.
Patrick even tried to swim under it, but the current was too strong. We spent a few hours there, swimming, taking photos and walking around, before heading back to the Esplanade.
This time, we stopped next to a Telstra Air hotspot, because we needed wifi. We got some work done before getting out the longboards again and going for a cruise. It was almost sunset, and the sky was really colourful! So nice!
We passed by the beach volleyball courts and watched some people playing. Now we really wanna play as well!
It got dark already, so we rode back to the van and made dinner. A guy contacted us on Facebook and wanted to check out the van, how we converted it. He does have a van as well, a smaller one, and knew our van from all the posts. We met up with him and at the end of the evening he showed us a really nice lookout, where you have an amazing view over Cairns.
He told us we could stay there for the night, because no one cares, so we did. At about 4 am Jele woke up and thought she was laying in a nightclub! There was loud music and people screaming and laughing, right next to the van. We looked out of the window and saw a bunch of people, having a party right next to us. They wouldn’t stop being super noisy and we couldn’t fall asleep anymore, so we climbed into the front seats and took off! We drove past the other lookouts, and they were having parties in all of them! (One genre of people, we won’t talk explicitely about).
We drove down the mountain and parked somewhere on the side of the road to get some more sleep. When we woke up again, we wanted to go to Rusty’s market. It is a huge farmers market, which we knew from last year.
We bought a lot of fruit and vegetables and started driving further up north, because we booked a Caravan Park for that night. THE FIRST TIME WE ACTUALLY SLEPT IN A CARAVAN PARK! Well, why did we do this? We really needed power to bake Cinnabons and Pizza, but also, we wanted to deep clean our van and get rid of all the shit we don’t need anymore. So, it was good to have one spot where we could stay and get all of our stuff out of the van.
We worked on the car all day long, only took a break for some more Wizard and Whiskey with Claire and Luke. We kept working afterwards. Suddenly it started raining and our laundry was still hanging outside on the clotheslines. We ran to get it and could almost save everything from the rain! In the end we had a shower at 2:30 am and finally went to bed at 3:30, which is way too late. We wanted to get up early as well and it was soooo hard when the alarm rang.
Cheers from Cairns,
Jele & Patrick
PS: We finally uploaded the highlight video of Mount Beerwah (1st week). Check it out!
Hi Guys. Mount Beerwah looks like a real challenge….that is steep…
I had to laugh at Patrick omitting so.e important detail about your hike up Mount Bartel-Frere…..he mist have learned this from his mom…she always does that too😉😉.
The hot pools look amazing. What is the orange light in yhe background of the first picture ?
I love reading about your adventures…..enjoy it….