From Mataranka we drove along the Savannah Way on an unsealed but good track to Limmen National Park. The campgrounds in the northern part of the Park along Roper River are occupied by people doing fishing – but we found a nice Spot at Butterfly Springs, a permanent waterhole. Before wie had organized the key for the gate to the 4WD-track to the Western Lost City, we drove this bumpy, but otherway easy track the next morning. “Lost City” refer to sandstone formations of lots of free-standing towers.

In the afternoon, we continued to the “Southern Lost City” (also sandstone towers), where we went hiking and spent the next night on the campground.

Via Tawallah and Jangurrie wie headed first to Borroloola to refuel, we spent the next night at the shore of the Calvert River. Luckily, the little creek – an inflow of the Calvert River – was guaranteed free of crocodiles (a crocodile simply would not fit in!) – that we could get water for showering and washing dishes. The next day we continued eastwards, ate lunch at Domadgee Roadhouse and then made a side-trip to Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park.
The track along Elizabeth Creek/Hill Creek resembled temporarily an overgrown kangoroo-path, but the HEMA-map repassured us again and again to be on the right track and we arrived at our destination.
We already new in advance, the the campsite in the national park was booked out for the next few days, but we found a nice free spot at the shore of Smithys Grove. The next morning we walked despite upcoming rain through the beautiful park to a lookout and then down to the river. It would have been possible to canoe and to swim – but we found it too scary having to share the waterwith freshwater crocodiles..

From there, we went back to the main track and spent the night at the Leichhardt-falls. On both sides of the river there were sand tracks leading to inofficiel camp spots and there were lots of other campers. In the night, it started raining, the next day it was cloudy and we had to pay attention because there were lots of kangoroos hopping over the road (which normally spend the day lazing under a tree and only become active at dusk). After filling up all our jerry cans and stocking up food supplies in Normanton, we had initially planned to drive for 300 – 400 km on the Burke Developmental Road and then cross to the Peninsula Developmental Road towards Cape York. But the weather upset our plans: with the rain becoming more and more intense, the officially still open Burke Developmental Road transformed into a mixture of a swimming-pool and a mud-bath in front of our eyes (and beneath our tyres!). Facing the several hundred kilometers of unsealed road with lots of river crossings we decided reluctantly to turn around – before it was too late.

The detour on the tarred road (Kennedy Highway via Atherton and Mareeba) was immense, but was the only feasible solution. We spent the following night on a (tarred!) rest area with a shelterd table at the town entrance of Georgetown. In the course of the next day, it finally stopped raining – via the internet wie found out that the Burke Developmental Road Wagone closed.
To get a shower and compensate the kids for the additional driving, we went to Granite Gorge northwest of Mareeba. There, they could feed lots of cute Rock-wallabies (Mini-kangoroos). The nett morning, we had to fetch again some wallaby food for the next day and also did the short but difficult hike (involving some rock scrambling) through the gorge.

Via the Mulligan Highway and Lakeland we finally reached the Peninsula Developmental Road, where we saw lots of vehicles coming down from Cape York which were covered in red-brown mud. We spent the night – again in the rain – at Musgrave Roadhouse. The unsealed road was despite the considerable amounts of rain in a relatively good condition. Normally, at least Markus would have loved to drive the famous and difficult “Old Telegraph Track” gefahren. But the track included several river crossings. After we were told several times – including at the Bramwell Roadhouse – that a winch is urgently recommended (to pull out the car in any case out of the Palm Creek and possibly out of other rivers due to the extremely steep and slippery river banks), we cancelled the idea. We did not have a winch, were without a second vehicle and did not want to drown our car in the river.
We drove the Bypass-road, with a side-trip to the “Gunshot” – obviously the crossing with the steepest and most dangerous river banks. We camped there but unfortunately, wie did not see any car passing…

We swam at the Fruitbat-falls and Twin-falls before crossing the Jardine River by ferry and heading on to the north.

We spent the night at Sommerset-beach and the next day, we went to the northernmost point Australiens, Cape York. The last few hundred Meters to the cape you have to walk, we went there along the beach by low-tide and came back over the rocks. By now, we had frightened the kids so much about crocodiles that Nora was to scared to have a photo tanken with her and the “Cape York” sign next to the water…

Despite the complicated booking system of the Queensland National Parks, we had managed to reserve a site at the beautiful Twinfalls. On the access Track to the campground, we also got our deep water crossing: it was so deep that the car got into the engine lid and water entered through the side doors into the cabin. Luckily, everything else went fine (thanks to the snorkel).

On the way back to the south, we spending night closed to Coen next to the river. Hence the Lakefield National Park was still closed due to flooding after the heavy rainfalls we went to Cooktown for two days. There, after a long time, we had again a hot shower, a pool and a descent supermarkt.
The Bloomfield 4WD-track south of Cooktown along the coast turned out to be a well maintained road.
But we had to cross a relatively large and fast-flowing river- the Crocomobile was used as a test object for the delight of everyone waiting (including the local fire brigade) and Managed the crossings without problems.
We went to Cape Tribulation, walked on the (unfortunately only partially open) walkways through the rainforest and spent the night at Daintree National Park. Fitting in the car and setting up our tent on the narrow site (reserved blindly by interne) had to be done millimeter by millimeter!

We folowed the now very touristic coastal road further south, the Daintree River had to be crossed on a little ferry. Close to Miallo, we visited a smalltalk cocoa-farm with their own chocolate production and afterwards went hiking in the Mossman-Gorge.

With the promise of nice waterslides at Glengarry Holiday Park close to Port Douglas the Kids walked faster than ever before.
After an afternoon of playing and splashing and a night on the pretty, but mosquito-infested campsite wie went to the tourist village of Kuranda. There was a little animal Park with unfortunately very well-fed kangoroos (the kids wanted to feed them) and wie got a family photo with Koala Charly. On the market we bought an own mini-didgeridoo and some souvenirs.

Since we were again close to Mareeba, we spent again a night at Granite Gorge where the really hungry wallabies swallowed 2 full food bags in 15 minutes!! The next morning, we visited a coffee- and tea factory with unlimited Degustation and bought again some souvenirs.

From there wie drove directly to the Coconut Resort in Cairns, a Giant campground with all imaginable Kidds’ amusements: waterslides and water playground, dry playground, indoor-playground, 2 jumping pillows, minigolf, a ride with the “Fire Car” on the campground…and for the adelst, there were at least to big swimming-Pool, a warm whirlpool, an oven for pizza and cake – wie have never Seen a similar campground in Europe.

In Cairns we visited the Night Market and booked a tour to the Great Barrier Reef. The reef was really impressive: first we 90min by ship to a permanent pontoon, from the we could snorkel with stinger suits (jellyfish proof suits covering the whole body), do tours with a glass bottom boat and semi-submersible boat and watch the fish feeding. When Nora – equipped with snorkel and swimming vest – only went a few meters away from the pontoon, she had the great luck that Wallee (“pet fish” of the pontoon, a Giant wrasse) and the underwater photographer were prevent at the same time- so we got a wonderful photo. Unfortunately, Fiona did mit dare to leave the pontoon, but Even from there and from the boats she saw a lot of fishes and corals.