I arrived into Cardwell looking for a little bit of luxury after weeks of camping and staying in hostels. I found a recommendation in the Lonely Planet for a B & B called Mudbrick Manor, which is owned by Ken and Bev Stephens. Ken worked in construction for many years and built the entire thing, including the bricks, himself. It was a great little place to stay, with a cozy entertainment room, garden, and huge bedrooms. After a night there, I decided to catch the ferry from Cardwell over to Hitchenbrook Island National Park, which is just off the coast. There is a 32km trail called the Thorsburn Trail, across the eastern side of the island that you need to book at least a few months in advance to get a camping permit. This is because they only allow 40 people on the island at a time in order to keep the remote feeling of the island. I called a few days before I got to Cardwell, and of course they were already fully booked, so I decided just to go over and do a shorter hike and camp for one night. On the ferry over from Cardwell, I met 8 people that had booked to do the Thorsburn Trail, and they had booked 6 months ago! Guess it was a bit optimistic of me to turn up and hope to get on the trail with a few days notice. Turned out one of them had cancelled at the last minute and offered for me to take his spot (how lucky was that?!), but I had only brought enough food, water and clothes for one day, so I figured it'd be better just to stick to my original plan. Darnit.

The ferry dropped me off at the Islands resort, where you can pay $300 per night to stay in a tree house. I had lunch at the resort and then set off on my 5km hike to my camp site at Macushla. On the way I ran into my first Goanna (big lizard). It was right on the trail, but scurried off as I approached. Didn't see much wildlife other than that, but my eyes were definately peeled. Once I got to Macushla, noticed there was no other tents set up. There were a few sailboats in the water, and I ran into a few people from the sailboats, but none of them were camping. I was all alone there! The Lonely Planet was right - isolated and remote. I felt like Tom Hanks from Castaway - I should have painted a face on a coconut and named it Del Monte or something. :) I set up my tent and hung all my food from a shelter so that the Goannas and native rats wouldn't be knocking on my tent in the middle of the night.

It was strange being there all alone. Even though I've been traveling alone, there have always been other people I've met that happen to be doing the same thing that I end up hanging out with. This was the first time in the last 3 months that I was REALLY ALONE. It was a little unnerving. Until dark, I wandered around taking pictures of the water and nearby islands, staying away from the water after seeing this crocodile warning sign. After the sunset there wasn't really much else to do, so just got in my tent and spent the rest of the night listening to the different sounds coming from the forest and water and imagining there were crocodiles and goannas circling my tent.