Left Atherton, called in Mareeba for some supplies and headed north. The intention was to stay in Laura which is about a 3 hour drive.

We were probably about 80km out of Mount Molloy and we could see smoke in the distance, we thought it was probably a controlled burn. I hate fires, probably my worst fears. As we got closer and closer the smoke was getting worse and then we came around a bend and there were flames on both sides of the road. We could see that it was clear the other side so I put my foot down and drove through as fast as I could. Once we were the other side you could see that a lot of the bush had burnt away, trees had smoke billowing out of them. It really was quite scary, this was not a controlled burn.

We then arrived at Laura where we were planning to stay. There is free camping behind the pub if you have a drink. The pub was closed and the camping gate chained up so I went next door to ask what was going on at the general store. The guy tells me the pub has closed because the publican got eaten by a crocodile just over a week ago! Apparently he was fishing on a Saturday afternoon with some friends along a river and the friends heard a big splash and he was gone, the crocodile got him, there are a lot of crocodiles around. They have since killed two of the crocodiles and his remains were found inside! 

So we carried on to Hann River which was another 75km the last 10kms was unsealed, this is the beginning of the unsealed road it will be like this all the way to the top. Hann River has a lot of animals wandering about including a little minature horse in the cafe area, chickens and peacocks!