Leave Cairns behind and travel up the Peninsula Development Road to Laura, the small gateway village to North Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula and the end of your mobile phone reception. Along the way enjoy a quick break at Mareeba, the last stop on the muster route that drove cattle down the Cape to be transported across Australia and overseas. Leaving Laura we travel over seasonal river beds and the forested Kimba plateau in Southern Cape York along the Great Dividing Range to arrive at Killarney homestead and settle into your base camp for the next four days. Meet your Olkola hosts and enjoy a delicious dinner before hearings stories of the country around the campfire.

Set out in the four wheel drives to enjoy bird filled lagoons and waterways for a traditional Olkola welcome to country. Along the way learn more about the meaning of places to different Olkola clans, and of life for the Olkola in the cattle mustering years which continues elsewhere on Olkola country to this day. Relax in a shady spot by the water for lunch, boil a billy of tea over the fire, and see how many waterbirds and freshwater crocodiles you can spot. Return to Killarney learning along the way about the different uses of plants in Olkola culture. Then watch the sun set over Killarney while sharing stories and dinner with your hosts.

Today we head out to the escarpment country – etched with the symbols and signs from the ancient Olkola culture. See scar trees from Olkola camps long ago, and understand some of the traditional bush medicines growing around you. Enjoy lunch overlooking the vast savannah plains and distant ranges. Your Olkola guides can explain how Olkola Land Managers now manage fires to keep the country healthy and to earn income from reducing greenhouse gases. If you want to stretch the legs, climb a small rocky peak where you may find small bats sheltering in rock crevices. Or you may be lucky to spot the rare Alwal or Golden Shouldered Parrot, or its nesting site dug into the site of special conical termite mounds. We have a stop at Maryanne Yard, an old stockyard with a working windmill which is an important source of water for the birdlife. Return to Killarney base for a hot shower, delicious dinner and tea around the campfire. (NOTE To check with Olkola – are they still planning to take visitors up to the bora grounds in future? If so, to include in this day. This is why I’ve alluded in the following “etched with the symbols..” but not promised bora grounds if Olkola decide not to allow cars up there)

Today we head to Jungle Creek – a lush spring fed permanent stream feeding into one of the five big rivers which rise on Olkola country and flow both east and west to the Pacific Coral Sea at Princess Charlotte Bay and to the Gulf of Carpentaria. A short walk across the creek are cave shelters with recently discovered rock art. Then its time to relax in a shady spot by a pool for a leisurely lunch and perhaps a refreshing dip in these croc free waters. On the way home stop at “the dancing grounds” where the ground below your feet wobbles above the water table, and perhaps collect some bush oranges on the way back to Killarney base and your final sunset on Olkola country.

Leaving the cultural landscapes of the Olkola we head back east to Laura then along the sandstone country of Battlecamp Road descending back into rainforest country and across the river to Cooktown. We stop at Old Laura where we visit an historic homestead by the river . After a week of open skies and tents relax tonight in a friendly local guest house, and enjoy dinner and perhaps a stroll along the foreshore of the Endeavour River in the balmy evening.

After breakfast at the guest house you are free to wander through Cooktown’s local Saturday market and the weekly meeting place for locals, or to explore the local museum. Visit Grassy Hill lookout in Cooktown and the mysterious Black Mountain on your way down the Bloomfield Track – arguably the most spectacular coastal rainforest drive in Australia – to Cape Tribulation, stopping at the iconic Lions Den Hotel to check out this quirky pub. We take the ferry across the Daintree River and head back through the sugarcane country and the spectacular coastal highway to Cairns where the tour ends. But why not enjoy the optional farewell dinner together with your fellow travelers at one of Cairns most atmospheric restaurants, the Bayleaf, a short stroll from the hotel.