Addendum

Bill Bryson, having just flown into Cairns during rainy season, writes this on a conversation with the rental car salesman:

"But we were going to drive up towards Cape York."

"Oh, you won't get there in the wet. Not even in a four-wheel drive. Not at this time of year. They had a hundred centimetres of rain at Cape Tribulation last week." I had no very clear idea what a hundred centimetres was, but it was evident from his tone that it was considerable. "You won't get beyond Daintree in anything less than a helicopter."

I sighed again.

"The road to Townsville's been cut off for three days," he added with yet more pride.

I looked at him again. Townsville is south of Cairns - in the opposite direction from Cape York. It appeared we were boxed in. "So where can we go?" I asked.

He spread his hands in cheerful irony. "Anywhere you like in greater Cairns."

(Bill Bryson, Down Under, Black Swan, 2000.)

Let's compare this verbal picture of the road between Townsville and Cairns in, probably, 1999 with this picture of the road between Townsville and Cairns in 2007:

That makes me feel slightly better, that a well-known travel writer encountered a similar problem to us...!