I felt like a local leaving Weipa. Four days was long enough to have been everywhere, at least four times. I was happy to put it in my rear view mirror, and as we roared along at 100kph we passed another destroyed 4WD, sitting in a cage at with a sign saying ‘Speed Kills’. Hmm… Thanks for the reminder.

Medical emergencies aside, our first stop was the shopping centre where we paid an absolute fortune for a couple of coffees, a cake and a wrap in in the only café in town. We were determined to find a room with air-conditioning where we could let Katie relax and watch some TV, chill for a couple of days and recuperate.

We set up quickly in a grassy area beside the roadhouse. The kids ran off and immediately hooked up with another bunch across the way. I wandered up and bought a cold beer, and a glass of chilled wine for Erin. Ahhhh…

Endeavour Falls was right behind our camp site, so we hopped past the Crocodile warning sign and gingerly had a look. It was very pretty, tranquil, and disarmingly calm looking. Contrary to the roiling froth of teeth and death lying hidden beneath.

“OK that’s enough folks, back to camp.”

Out the camp site, turn right and keep going to the top of the country. That’s about the size of it. Before long the road turns to gravel, then a sign tells you only 4WDs are allowed from here on. As if to underline the importance of this notice, there is an abandoned 2WD vehicle right next to it. OK. Point taken.

Setting off from Palm Cove held a distinctly different kind of excitement. We’ve been off-road a little bit so far, but nothing like what’s ahead of us now. It feels like we’re about to take on a totally different adventure.

Sounds like a good night’s viewing, but in fact, it was a very busy week. Palm Cove is a lovely wee Caribbean style holiday village on the coast, about an hour from Mareeba. It was our next stop as friends from Sydney were flying up for a few days. Not to see us, but it just so happened that we would be passing by at the same time.

The sub-tropical Gondwana Rainforests have disappeared now, to be replaced by the Wet Tropical Rainforests. You don’t really notice the difference to begin with. From a distance it still looks like mountains covered in trees but it’s a distinctly different environment, with different plants and animals calling it home.

We poked through a gap in the mountains and the landscape flattened out, to remain that way for the whole of the drive – about an hour and a half. A layer of bush and scrub stretched into the horizon, dotted all over with enormous termite mounds.

Leaving Alva we headed West for 20 kms, then turned right before the land rose into a mountainous barricade protecting the hinterland. It was only an hour and a half up to Townsville from here, and sugar cane lined the highway all the way up.