Day 9 - The Lynd Junction to Port Douglas

 (Kate)

This morning we had our most relaxed morning pack up so far - we must all be getting used to the routine.  It was cool to cold overnight but cosy in the tent, sardine style.

We drove up into the Atherton Tablelands.  It's so beautiful, with lots of trees, like a dense woodland, on beautiful dark red rich-looking soil.  There is green grass between all the trees - every single square metre of soil seems occupied with plant life.   It's like the Adelaide Hills at its greenest in winter, but instead of being cold, it's 25 degrees.

We stopped at Mt Garnet to make lunch, and got coffees at an antique shop that sells coffees as a side gig.  There is a chalk board by the front door which says "nothing makes sense without coffee."

We called a caravan park in Pt Douglas who said they weren't taking bookings for unpowered sites at them moment as they were trying to let the grass dry out after the recent rains, but there was a spot at the back, a long way from the amenities that they could squeeze us into, so we jumped back in the car and went for it.  Google maps said if would take us 3 hours, but we've learned from past experience that "Dora the Explorer", as we call google maps, underestimates travel time.  We'll see.  When we came down off the "table" of the tablelands into Atherton, there were loads of avocado farms, sugar cane and bananas.  So not like Adelaide!  The maximum altitude we got to was 1180m above sea level.

We got to Port Douglas in about 3 hours (well done, Dora) and the caravan park seems luxurious to us.  Plush, spaceous grassy sites in raised rows, with slushy roadways in between.  Our site has some tall trees to the north west, which the sun disappears behind at about 4pm, and the prevailing wind seems to be a south easterly.  We've put up the big tent for the first time, since we'll be here for 3 nights.  It's warm and a bit humid here compared with Adelaide.  From our campsite we can see sugar cane, hills covered in trees, and colourful flowers.  One of the things I love about being this far north in Australia is how the birdlife changes.  It's most obvious at dawn when they are singing (wonderful to lie in the tent and here them all singing in the mornings).  One bird is not such a pleasant sound though - after sunset last night we heard what sounded like a child screeching.  It continued with a familiar pattern so we decided it must be a bird.  A quick google search came up with "Curlew" - nocturnal birds that call to each other in a shrieking or wailing tone.  It was a bit annoying and continued throughout the night, but it's just one of the marvels of the landscape here.  The curlews looks a bit like a small flamingo but grey and white.  Keith has nicknamed them "screechers".