The Wanderer
Canyoning Bahana Gorge
Wet Tropics Road Trip: Family Fun from Townsville to Cape Tribulation
There's a chicken on our back seat. We need to get moving, but the feathered stowaway has snuggled onto my eldest daughter's lap, her two siblings grinning complicitly. Three weeks on the road and just like that, my offspring have transitioned from screen-keen city slickers into free-range kids.
We're on a road trip through Far North Queensland after taking the dusty inland route from Melbourne through the Outback. It's been a swift 2,700-kilometre journey thus far. Now that we've hit the coast, the aim is to go slow, chasing waterfalls as we explore the Wet Tropics from Townsville to Cape Tribulation. The journey is just shy of 500 kilometres, and we're determined to stay mostly in low-cost campgrounds where we can unhitch in nature and toast marshmallows under a canopy of stars. This is how we end up camping at an Alpaca farm in the shadow of Queensland's second-highest peak, Mt Bellenden Ker. We pick a spot on a swathe of velvety green lawn and are soon ambushed by flocks of friendly chooks and ungainly alpacas that skitter away as soon as their curiosity is reciprocated.
RV Travel Australia: Hidden Gems in the Wet Tropics
Babinda Rainforest Farm is one of those hidden farm-stays you can only visit with a self-contained RV and only hope to find – sans Traveller – through word of mouth. It's a short hop off the Bruce Highway, an hour south of Cairns. Cradled by rainforest, the farm has a spring-fed swimming hole and is beloved for its afternoon alpaca feeding. It's also a springboard to Babinda Boulders, one of the Wet Tropics' most popular swimming holes. Nevertheless, if you're struggling to find accommodation, the CMCA Traveller app can guide you to many other suitable stops for the night.
Waterfall Camping Spots: Babinda to Paluma Range
When we visit, Babinda is bustling. Kids float on lilos and leap from boulders into the chilly rainforest-fringed lagoon, fed by the wettest catchment in Australia. Babinda is part of Wooroonooran National Park, one of 29 national parks that make up the World Heritage-listed Wet Tropics. This chain of densely forested mountain ranges extends 450 kilometres along the coastal spine of Far North Queensland. For waterfall chasers, it's one big wet playground.
Our waterfall adventures start just north of Townsville in Paluma Range National Park, at the southern end of the Wet Tropics. We unhitch our caravan at Big Crystal Creek Camping Area, a short stroll from the aptly named Paradise Waterhole. Here, our kids catapult into the water until their lips are blue and teeth chattering. At the Rockslides upstream, we zip down a natural slippery dip into a shallow pool and enjoy nature's jacuzzi while the big kids jump from the rocks.
Murray Falls, Girramay National Park
Best Waterfalls Wet Tropics: Wallaman, Jourama and Beyond
One afternoon, we drive high onto the range to Little Crystal Creek, where a picture-book stone bridge arches over a series of tranquil pools and silvery cascades. Each waterfall is an appetiser to the big one – Wallaman. About 50 kilometres west of Ingham, at the end of a sinuous ribbon of bitumen, Wallaman Falls thunders 268 metres into the rainbow-misted Herbert River Valley. The walk to the base (3.2 kilometres return) is a glute-burner, but it's worth it to feel the force of Australia's biggest permanent single-drop waterfall ripple through your bones. On the way back to camp, we cool off at Jourama Falls – another series of tumbling cascades in the northern section of Paluma Range.
Far North Queensland Caravan Trip: Waterholes, Bugs and Beaches
Leaving Big Crystal Creek, heading northbound on the Bruce, we unhitch the caravan in the main street of Cardwell to explore a trifecta of swimming holes – Cardwell Spa Pool, Attie Creek Falls and Dead Horse Creek. But it's the tail-end of the dry season and the water holes are a bit, well, dry. Murray Falls, a little further north, in Girramay National Park, is still raging, and it's here where we set up camp for the night. We have high hopes of a campfire and a lazy afternoon swimming by the river, but the march flies are ferocious and barricade us indoors.
We've left the caravan hitched overnight and beat a hasty retreat the next morning. Salt water is the balm our bug-bitten bodies need, and so we regroup in Mission Beach. The laid-back tourist village skirts a golden sweep of sand, and the low-key Mission Beach Camping and Caravan Park has sites right on the waterfront. Cue long days of swimming, beach strolls and sundowners by the sea. We even spot a cassowary on a walk at nearby Licuala State Park. The world's second-heaviest bird is a formidable sight, unlike those Babinda chooks, whom we're about to meet.
Waterfall Adventures and Canyoning in the Wet Tropics
Babinda sees us ensconced back in the rainforest. We make day trips to the boulders and Jourama Falls, where we hurtle down a gushing rockslide into a deep emerald pool. My kids have become emboldened in fresh water. When we get to Cairns, we tick off the touristy checklist – a day on the Great Barrier Reef, Skyrail Rainforest Cableway and the Kuranda Scenic Railway. Then we up the adrenaline on a canyoning adventure in Behana Gorge. The half-day jaunt has us cliff jumping, ping-ponging through waterfalls and riding the rapids in a human train. There's more of the same (but calmer) at Mossman Gorge on the edge of the Daintree Rainforest, where we take advantage of long-vehicle parking en route to Cape Tribulation.
Road works on the drive to Cape Tribulation
Cape Tribulation Camping: Wet Tropics Finale
The final leg of the journey is an adventure in itself. First the cable ferry over the Daintree River, then negotiating narrow winding roads and long delays as authorities work to rebuild sections of the road washed away by Cyclone Jasper in January 2024. It's worth it. Pulling into Daintree village, where the rainforest famously meets the reef, feels like we've arrived at the end of the Earth. We set up at a beachfront site with a fire pit at Cape Tribulation Camping. There's lots to do and an ambience conducive to doing nothing at all. We pull sour-lemon faces on an exotic fruit tasting tour at Cape Trib Farm and rocket through the world's oldest rainforest on a zipline. We snorkel with turtles, reef sharks and giant clams on a reef speedboat trip to a sand cay that looks like something out of a James Bond flick. Each day ends with a swim at Mason's Waterhole, with little fish nibbling at our toes.
When it's time to begin the journey south, we take the inland route through the Atherton Tablelands. There are more waterfalls to explore. And no doubt more chickens to meet.
The Wet Tropics begins just north of Townsville, about 1,350 kilometres north of Brisbane.
More information:
missionbeachcampingandcaravanpark.com.au
Sand cay offshore from Cape Tribulation
Category: Destinations
Written: Fri 01 Aug 2025
Printed: August, 2025
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