The Sun shall be blotted from the sky!

[footfootfoot]

You're just lucky you weren't eaten by a drop bear, young man. That's all I have to say.

[ZenGum]

After climbing that mountain and sleeping in my sweaty clothes inside a giant garbage bag, I was desperately in need of a swim. So, I went camping. Again.

First, drive a little way south along the Bruce Highway. The East Coast has a thin alluvial plain between the sea and the mountains, looking somewhat like this. There's sugar cane here, but often also bananas, lychees, pineapples, and cattle.



Then to a place called Murray falls, which I remembered from my last time up here. This is probably about 50 metres high. Remember, this is the end of the dry season.



A few silly drongos had managed to kill themselves here, by jumping off cliffs into the pools at the bottom of the falls, so anywhere near the falls was fenced off with big signs saying VERBOTEN!!!

So I only had to share these areas with about a dozen other people, and all the grey-haired nay-sayers could stare disapprovingly from behind the safety fence.

View from the top, looking out over the valley.



And past a few more signs, upstream from the falls, was this lovely swimming hole, plenty deep, and since crocs can't climb waterfalls, the only danger here was flying sharks.

[ZenGum]

I had mentioned that I wanted to visit the Northernmost tip of Cape York. So far this year I have done the Southernmost and Easternmost points of Australia, would be nice to box the compass.

Ahh, difficult. Even after you've done 3,200 kms and got to Cairns, it is still about another 1,000km to the tip. and here's what google maps has to say about the roads:

We could not calculate directions between Cairns QLD and Bamaga QLD.

There is a road but from speaking to locals, it was clear that you need a high-clearance 4WD with river crossing ability, well beyond what my little subi could do. The car was a bit grumpy already. Also you don't go during the wet season unless you're a masochist.
There were some options from Cairns, either a 4WD tour, or a day trip by plane, but both were well over $1,000 and seemed to miss the point of the adventure. So visiting The Tip has been saved for "some other time".

Likewise, I'd been planning to return via some desert tracks - the Birdsville Track and the Oodnadatta track. While river crossing was probably not a problem, the rough roads take a toll on a car. Worse, the summer heat had started, temps over 40 every day, and that makes it impossible to get out and look at things. It would just be a driving mission. If you're just going to drive, better to stay on black top. So, the desert tracks will also have to wait for some other time.

Instead, I spent another day at Murray Falls.

Dragon flies:



A cane toad. These are an introduced species and have become one of the worst pests we have. They do a lousy job of controlling cane beetle (since the beetles can climb to the top of the cane, but the toads can't ) and their poisonous glands make them deadly for anything that eats them. As they spread they leave a trail of chaos through the ecosystem.
Because of their poison, they don't bother fleeing danger. Which means that BB guns, golf clubs and cars are their main threats. This fellow was feeling a bit flat, shall we say... or maybe a bit tired. (Which works better with the American spelling )



Nearby were some pine trees. Remember Cyclone Yasi? Pine trees and cyclones do not play well together. This is about 30kms inland, in a valley.