QLD Road Trip - Day 2

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Day 2: Mission Beach to Paluma National Park

After our first camp breakfast, and before leaving Mission Beach, we climbed to a lookout at the end of the peninsula which provided sweeping views over the bay and across to Dunk Island, albeit with some continued cloud cover.

We then continued south which took us through Tully, a town which claims the record as the wettest location in Australia. It even has a giant gumboot (a wellington for any English readers) measuring 7.92 metres, a tribute to its highest annual rainfall record which occurred in 1950. We were recommended to do the white water rafting in Tully, some of the best in Australia, but we arrived a little too late in the day and decided to continue south instead... maybe next time!

Our next destination was Paluma National Park where we visited Wallaman Falls; the largest single drop waterfall in Australia, tumbling 305m (1000 feet). It was an impressive sight, especially with the low cloud cover that masked the bottom of the falls. When it didn’t clear after 10 minutes we figured it was time to move on before it rained again!

The weather started to improve once we left the mountainous area around Tully and we finally found some nice sunshine to accompany our drive. We reached our camping spot for the night, at Jourama Falls, still within Paluma National Park. We came across two flooded rivers on our way to the campsite which Dan ensured we crossed at full speed to ensure our safety. The weather was still good when we arrived so we enjoyed a swim in a deserted rock pool before retiring to setup camp.

The campsite was in middle of the bush with space for a small number of campers which gave it a great feel of remoteness. We campsite, run by the QLD Forestry Commission, is only minutes from the falls and complete with toilet and BBQ facilities and at $5 per person was a real bargain. Natalie whipped up her camping speciality, chicken and cous-cous, which we enjoyed with a few glasses of red and a game of cards under a clear sky.

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