(Lack of) Lakeland

We got jobs! yay! Found it on Gumtree while were in Cairns and droveup two days later.

So here we are in Lakeland, Far North Queensland. There are no lakes here. Just miles and miles of cow pastures, occasionally interuppted by a large banana farm, teak plantation, or cattle station. The town is mostly full of farm workers, most of which keep to themselves and arent allowed to go to the pub. We're staying at the Lakeland Caravan Park where we there are some more workers, some of which we have made really good friends with. Yay!
Lakeland is one of the very few stops on the way to Cape York, so we get a lot of people stopping off for diesel and petrol for their boats, so the Roadhouse where we work is sometimes pretty busy. Not often though. Its usually fairly dead.

The weather is super duper hot right now, but yesterday we went to a local farm that has a dam so we could have a little swim and play on a boat. It was awesome, we're definitely going to head up there again.

We're quite isolated up here - the closest supermarket is in cooktown, an hour away, but since we have a van its easy to get around and see stuff. There are some aboriginal cave paintings up the road, another smalltown called Laura, an awesome bush pub called the Lions Den, and some creeks you can swim in that are free of crocs. Its just hardtoget the energy to do antything when the temperature is in the 30s all the time.

Cook Point. Or hill. or something with Cook in the name, anyway.

We've been lucky in that wehave met so many awesome people to hang out with. A few of the banana farm workers are from the UK, as well as a couple of the girlsin the pub, so we made friends here really easily. The good thing about working here isthat there are not much opportunities to spend the money we are earning. The bad thing is that the pub is one of those places.

Bushfire!!!

Wetlands

Sun 1st
Drove up the road to Palm Beach. Expected postcard type views of sandy beaches with palm trees gently waving in the breeze. What we got was driving winds, sand in our eyes and sea the colour of Felixstowe docks. So we fucked off up the coast some more until we got to Port Douglas. Slightly better. More of a town so there was a bar in which we could drown our sorrows. We actually paid for a campsite this time so we enjoyed a nice hot shower and finally did some laundry so we smell like ROSES.

Monday 2nd
Drove into town at 10:30, walked all the way through, did some food shopping then headed up to Mossman Gorge, which I had high hopes was going to be awesome. Turns out the carpark was 2km away from the gorge, so instead of taking the $6 shuttle we all walked, then when we got there it was less than spectacular. Its more of a cultural heritage experience, which you can really only fully appreciate if you pay $70 for a guided tour or actually do some research, which I tend to avoid unless the information can be given to me in a short leaflet with accompanying pictures. It was a nice walk though.
After we left we went straight up and after a brief wrong turn situation we made it to the Daintree River where it turns out you have to pay to cross the ferry. Had I been paying attention to the glance I took at the Lonely Planet book I would have known about it but I guess my attention to detail is about as good as Baba's navigation skills.
Once we crossed the river on the unnecessary ferry (honestly, they could just build a bridge) we nearly met our maker courtesy of a 100m "passing lane", 2 impatient drivers and a cliff face. After 16km of twisting, narrow, harrowing roads we got to the campsite which gave us a chance to change our soiled underwear and for me to loosen my grip on the steering wheel. It was a lovely drive...

Tuesday 3rd
Went all the way up to Cape Tribulation, via some pretty boardwalks in the rainforest. The beach was beautiful, but the weather was shit. We got chatting to a weird old man who lives in a hut near the beach, and he let us park on his land for the night which was nice of him. He also gave us some tea, showed us how to crack open coconuts, and told us that the next world war would be breaking out in November, but we will be ok if we stay in Australia. Reassuring.

Wednesday 3rd
Did a bit more walking, took some ridiculous pictures then drove back down to Cairns. Found out that the Wicked Travel shop just let you use computers and internet for free so we will be taking full advantage over the next few days.

We're done with rain now, we would like some sunshine please.