And that is it. We got an Uber to the airport. The driver was a really nice guy who thanked us for visiting Cairns. We said we were back after Chrstmas and he said we really appreciate your support.

Our flight left a bit early and got into Brisbane a bit earlier again. A storm was forecast and he wanted to beat it.

We did, but later in the afternoon. Thunderbolts and lightning, very, very frightening. Plus a lot of hale as big as my thumbnail. Luckily no damage to car or house.

We can't stress enough how much we enjoyed this holiday. I think we both went into wondering how it would go and it was just so great.

The people up in FNQ are so grateful for visitors, even crazy ones travelling this late in the season. Cobbold had extended their season because they had so many people wanting to book. We needed to do a bit more planning and should have gone no later than September.

We'll go back across to the gulf. We'll definitely go back to Undara to see the microbats leave the tube at sunset and to do the 12km walk. We'll potentially drive from Townsville across to Charters Towers and then up the Matilda Way to Normanton and Karumba. 

We want to go fishing at Karumba again and will go out twice - once up the Norman and once out into the Gulf. We'll stay at the same motel. We want to go to Adel's Grove and Lawn Hill National Park. 

We'll go back to Fitzroy, not book a studio, maybe not even book a package, and find those bloody turtles and make sure we slip a bottle or two of something into our backpacks with a middle finger to their dumb rules.

Until our next adventure.