The edge of the outback

Back in Cairns, we still have the camper van for some more days. To make the most of it, we head west to sniff a bit at the outback. First we cross the green wet tropics of the Atherton Tablelands. After we leave Mareeba, the earth turns red and flat. And to make the experience more real, the road is alternately bitumen and red dust. Just before we arrive at Chillagoe, we see a sign with a warning that after this place, the next gasoline station is at 560 mile! We don't have to worry though, Chillagoe is as far as we go. It's quite a pretty place after the couple of desolate villages we crossed. We stay at a nice Eco camp, just out side the village.
The following morning we join a cave tour with a ranger. He's so passionate of working in nature and loves to tell us all about the special features of the cave, the trees and plants surrounding it and the animals that conquer the harsh environment. After the tour we walk around a bit more between the caves, a huge balancing rock and some aboriginal rock paintings. But the heat just takes all your energy, so we cool down in a village bar with a cold beer.
When turning back towards the coast, we get stopped in the middle of nowhere by a cop for a breath test. Luckily the beer had worn of already, so we passed it and continued on a real dirt road crossing some hills. On the map it looked like only 15 km bad road, but we ended spending most of the afternoon on 48 km over tree roots and rocky surface (we didn't tell the rental company).
With the heat and the dust we got a pretty good impression of the outback. Flying over the desert when we left Australia via Sydney and Darwin, it only sunk in how grand this outback really is.