May 11th, 2012- Archer River Campsite near Ravenshoe

Friday morning we were up early and heading East to Georgetown. We had decided at the last minute to try and catch the morning tour at Cobbold Gorge and wanted to be in Georgetown by 8AM. We left just before 7AM and the sun was just coming up directly in front of us. Rather stressful drive as lots of wildlife including Kangaroos, Brahmas, and a few large Wedge tail Eagles decided to cross our paths. Luckily we avoided contact with all of them. The road was not the best with narrow one lane section and windy. Saw a great sign on the one lane road promising an overtaking lane in 2KM. Turned out to be a that the road widened to two lanes for a short distance. Talk about positive spin!

Unfortunately once we arrived in Georgetown (and got mobile coverage again) and called the tour place; the 10AM tour was booked out with a tour group. They only had an afternoon tour available beginning at 1:30. After a group meeting we decided to fore go the tour and continue on towards Cairns as we have a reservation there for Saturday night. Something to see on our next trip through this way.

We continued East through some beautiful countryside arriving in Mount Surprise where we enjoyed morning tea. We had a quick look around town and decided to take advantage of our early start and continue East. We arrived at Archer Creek Campsite near Ravenshoe in early afternoon. This a beautiful grassy free camp with lots of space and basic amenity block.

After we got setup and had some lunch, we took a drive with the Ransleys. We drove into Ravenshoe and stopped at the Visitor Centre. Again this was a very nice centre with a museum integrated into it. Enjoyed a tour through and got some information for the area. Ravenshoe was quite a well kept little town with some interesting posts along the road.

We took advantage of having mobile service to contact Stephanie for her birthday. Can't believe our youngest is 22. We had a good visit with her. Rans and I took advantage of mobile coverage to access the Internet while the girls walked main street and checked out the local shops.

On the way back to the campsite we stopped at Millstream Falls. Had a short walk down to the falls in misty rain. They are quite an impressive falls and well worth the walk into them.

Headed back to Archer Creek where we enjoyed tea and an early night. We are off to Cairns in the morning.