And just like that our time in Cairns and hanging out with our good friends Russell and Jeltje has come to an end. It’s been a blast.

Now we point the wheels south and start our journey back to the cold country … but our trip is far from over as we have another 3,000km before we get back home. And lots of things to see and do.

Heading south there are so many cane fields lining the roads and a complex network of small gauge sugar cane train tracks criss-crossing the country side and roads. It makes me wonder how much track is laid up here for transporting the cane back to the mill and how much that must have cost.

After hearing lots of good things about Mission Beach we make a 20km detour off the highway to check it out.

I have too say that I was a bit under whelmed and it didn’t live up to the hype. It felt pokey and unorganised. For a town on the beach there really wasn’t anywhere you could sit and have a coffee overlooking the beach. For me that’s a must have. I don’t think we’ll be in a hurry to go back.

Cardwell, a bit further south, on the other hand was spectacular, a very pretty little place where you could sit in a pub, the takeaway, or a cafe and look over the beautiful parkland and the beach. This is a place I could go back to.

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After a late start we rolled into Townsville at 4:30pm in time to set up our tent and have a cuppa before the sun went down.

Tomorrow will be a chill day and explore Townsville a bit day.

Todays Distance: 385km

Total Distance: 4,001km

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Next – Sights of Townsville