Toucan, I will be very interested in their gravel road policy!! Thanks for the link. Too late to investigate tonight, but will first opportunity.
Sally in Seattle--where we are having the ultimate fine weather--sunny, low 80's and a breeze.

Sally, wow, the quote came back at 175 a day! 120 isn't looking so bad now. Yikes!

Have you tried Meteor Car Rentals in Cairns - www.meteorrentals.com.au Their website shows a small Toyota RAV4 recreational 4WD (seats 5) for $85 a day over a 7 day rental.

Thank you for that link Pat. I've sent off an inquiry to them. I realize that I'm being a bit terrier-like in my pursuit. Sometimes this is an admirable quality, other times it is annoying!

Sally, you might want to check the site Pat posted. They did come back with a quote, and with the RAV it was 85 a day (plus the insurance) and you are able to take on unsealed roads.

The only thing is they can no longer deliver to the airport. They'll come to get the driver to take back and sign all the paperwork, then the driver can go back and collect everyone else. And, they will only do this working hours M-F. It costs and additional 15 each way for this.

So, you would need to figure out if that was worth it to you. It may be for me,I just need to sit down and do some figuring and probably won't have a chance for a few days.

I would like to endorse Ellen Terrell, not only a top birder but a talented artist and singer. Ellen wrote the guide for guides in the Daintree so that must say something. To top it all off she is a nice person. She will know where the cassowaries have been seen in the Daintree area. She has always found one or more when we have gone over the river with her.

Hi Toucan and Sally

Meteor's in a non-touristy part of Cairns (a bit south of the city) so a $15 pickup from airport (north of the city) sounds reasonable if the timing suits you; a taxi would be about $20.

I just spoke to Lenore who runs Sugarland Car Rentals to see if she had a 4WD tucked away - Sugarland no longer keep 4WD's as their customers tend only to want vehicles for sealed roads or to maybe include just the short sections of graded gravel around Undara and Chillagoe where a chance of damage is almost zero. But when I mentioned Meteor's price for the RAV, Lenore said to "snaffle it"; Sugarland used to charge $145 a day for their RAV.

Hope this helps.

WOW! Thanks so much for the link, Pat, and the info, Toucan. We'll call them tonight. Thanks also, Saluarius, for the recc for Ellen.
Sally in HOT HOT Seattle

Well, I just booked a Nissan X-Trail AWD with Budget for $540 for 11 days with pick up and drop off at the airport. The reviews said it was similar to a RAV4. We are going to Chillagoe, Laura and Cooktown. The "fine print" said we could go to all those places but we couldn't go to Hope Vale north of Cooktown. Toucan, did you get one? We weren't going to go to Mt. Lewis, but we might want to. Does anyone know if this vehicle sounds like a good one for our needs? We aren't going to do any wild off-roading, just want to get there in one piece and comfortably. I think they have a great price, less than $50/day, especially given the discussion on this thread.
Sally in Seattle

topping, for Toucan's sake.
SS

Hi Sally, thanks for topping. I'm away for two weeks for the residency portion of the masters program I've begun work on, so haven't been able to do much online.

Well, after all of this research, I called my travel agent about booking the car and it turns out she used a wholesaler for the air and car rental.

She said she doesn't normally but because orginally I was going to take the train from Taree to Brisbane, she did. If I cancel the car with them, they apparently won't make the car reservations with the local place, then they would charge me a $300 cancellation fee! Can you believe it?

So, it's Budget for me and I'll just have to read the fine print and hope for the best.

I don't use a travel agent much anymore, and in fact all of my lodging reservations I made on my own, but I was just so busy at the time we were buying the tickets that I did this time. She's really great, but I think she is not really used to the kind of travellers we are regarding the birding needs and so on.

At any rate, I feel like I'm close to as fixed as I'm going to be. I'll be studying right up till the time we take the trip so I hope I have all my ducks in a row.

Sally, when is your trip?

Toucan, we are going Oct. 1-Nov. 1, but still trying to get it shortened by 5 days so DH can work that week and not take vacation days. I secretly hope we can't get our flight changed (we have FF miles seats in first class) so we have the time in Oz, but then again, it's expensive. I get this currency converter website mailed to me daily (at www.xe.net)(but I only check it once a week) and the AUD is up to 88c US!!! Wowser. I sure hope it is going to go down by October! Darn He Who Cannot Be Named But Who Is Nicknamed W. But I imagine the Aussies who are traveling to the US are happy. Neil, you took your trip too early! Good luck on your educational endeavors, Toucan, then you can relax and have fun on your trip. I hope you see lots of new birds!
Sally in cold, rainy, humid Seattle--not your average NW July