Cairns

We’re now well and truly entrenched in our unit at Clifton Beach, right across the road from the beach. Such a nice change from packing and setting up camp each day, and having the luxury of an en-suite has been great.
The first full day we ticked off a few of the maintenance chores. The car had a service as we’ve already done 6000km in 4 weeks (my initial estimate of 10-15,000km for the whole trip is now looking way off the mark - at the current rate it will be closer to 20,000km!). Lachlan and I also got our haircut while Chantal, Louise, and her parents Ray & Jan caught up on some shopping at DFO. Of course we don’t have any of these shops in Melb hence the need to shop while on holidays!
Next day we checked out central Cairns, which was swarming with young backpackers. So much choice up here on what to do and see - apart from the world renowned attractions, life changing decisions need to be made on whether (and what order) to check out the lesser known gems such as the Cane Toad racing, National goldfish racing championships, jelly wrestling or the Wed night wet t-shirt comp! Cairns has changed somewhat since I was here 30+ years ago, the foreshore and esplanade are great with a huge swimming pool/lagoon. The kids and Ray gave it a test and it was thumbs up from all. We’ve found a great roadside fruit stall and I can’t get enough of the passionfruits, which are a bigger version than we get down south.
The Kuranda Scenic Railway was the next days activity. This is a very scenic rail journey and an amazing engineering feat. As this was really the first of the world famous tourist attractions we’ve visited, it was here we encountered the most enthusiastic tourists on the planet – the Japanese. Like a swarm of ants they hurried around with the guys carrying tripods and camera bags (some of which I reckon were bigger than the bag I have that contains clothes for 3 months away!). One chap kindly asked me to move aside as he whizzed through the gift shop filming everything in sight! We had a good look around the markets in Kuranda, new and old. For the return journey we jumped on the Skyrail, which is a huge cable car or gondola that hangs above the magnificent rainforest on the slopes above Cairns. It was a great ride, though Louise wasn’t that excited about the higher sections, especially when the wind picked up.
Beach day today, air and water temps are very agreeable, well at least for us southerners. Ray spent part of the morning launching Chantal onto waves with her boogie board, some of which were steep enough to dump her well and truly, and being close to shore ensured she face planted into the sand. Speaking of boogie boards, we’re down one at present. Ray grabbed Lachlan’s board to show him how it’s down (Berenstain Bear’s family holiday image here) and proceeded to launch himself off a wave - when he surfaced he was holding only half a board! Apparently manufacturers limits were only exceeded by 50kg or so :-)
Tomorrow we’re all looking forward to heading out to the outer reef for the day.
Over and Out.
p.s. Video is of Lachlan showing off his boogie boarding skills at Clifton Beach!

The Gulf (Barra Country)

 From Burketown we headed east to Normanton. We stopped off at Leichhardt Falls - hard to comprehend in the dry season the amount of water that heads down the watercourses up here in the wet season. The falls was also where the bitumen ended, so we had another 150 odd km of gravel and dust into Normanton. Just before town we stopped by Burke & Will’s last camp (no.119) on their journey from Melb to the Gulf.

Did I mention Louise is over the dust, well she’s extremely happy for the next couple of weeks we won’t see any, at least with the trailer in tow. Heading into Burketown the trailer tailgate came slightly ajar, covering everything inside with a nice fine layer of dust!

Normanton & Burketown are both cattle towns, though some might argue now that Barra fishing is pulling in more bucks. On the banks of the Norman Rv, it’s also the home of the Gulflander railway, a railway that pretty much goes nowhere, I’m sure the lovely folk at Croydon might disagree though. The day we were there didn’t line up with their timetable so unfortunately we missed out on a classic railway experience. Of interest was their promo video which had Mike Leyland talking up the railway and town up back in the 70s ! It’s also the home of the big Barra and Krys the Croc (also rather large), which Chantal was rapt about as she’s taking photos of all the big stuff we come across in our travels.

Next day we had a short 70km drive to Karumba, the only spot in the southern gulf that you can get/drive to the coast. Now its official reason for its existence is a port for the export of Zinc & Lead and the live export of cattle. But this time of year it’s pretty much filled (even over-flowing) with grey nomads with huge (and very clean) 4wds towing large vans with boats as well, in fact the boat is the crucial item as fishing is the be and end all up here. Actually I haven’t been entirely accurate here, they really aren’t nomads – they come from all corners of the country and plonk themselves up here for between one and four months, and don’t move at all. Average age of said c-park occupants would have to be around 60-65. Also not the place for a sleep in, from 5am onwards the park is a hive of activity with very enthusiastic “male” fisherman banging and clanging everything imaginable !@#$%^& All right for them as they’re back by lunch and no doubt grab an afternoon nap or two. And if you’re looking to steal an immaculate Landcruiser (100 or 200 series) this is the place to come looking, the carpark at just one of the boat ramps I reckon had 100 of them sitting there ready for the taking!

To get into one of the parks at Karumba we actually booked ahead (not something we’re renowned for !) and we lucky to get two nights, even though we would have liked to stay longer. First day we checked out the lie of the place and visited the Barramundi Discovery centre. Here we learnt a heap about what makes Barramundi tick, including how temperamental the females are! Chantal was lucky enough to feed a couple of the big breeding girls – they make an amazing sound as they grab the fish and smash it into little pieces at the back of their throats. Later we went on a cruise up the Norman River doing a bit of croc spotting and taking in the sunset as it dropped over the Gulf. Lachlan and Chantal were lucky enough to steer the boat for 5 minutes or so.

We woke up the next day with an excited little boy – we were off on a fishing charter at midday. Sadly we didn’t score any Barra, but we got a heap of Brim and I got a number of fish I can’t even pronounce, or remember! Lachlan was the first to get his line in and within a minute had the first fish online. I made up ground later to the point Lachlan reckons I had the lucky spot on the boat so we did a swap, guess what – he didn’t catch any from there on, all to do with the technique I said! Small world, we bumped into a guy who lives at The Basin, when he’s not up here that is. We had fresh fried fish that night and managed to catch the sunset from the point with a heap of other tourists.

The next day was rather uneventful except for a 500 odd km drive to Mt Surprise where we stopped for the night, stopping at Croydon, an old gold mining town for lunch.

Today we had a cruisy day, first stopping at Millstream Falls, supposedly the widest falls in OZ. We had lunch at Ravenshoe where they had their market and were lucky to catch the steam train heading off on its tourist run. It was soon after on the way to Atherton that the rain started, not heavy but it made visibility within the rainforest areas pretty average. It was even hard to see the huge wind turbine farm we stopped at. Lachlan wanted to check out “The Crystal Caves” in Atherton, which is a huge collection of crystals (& gems) set out through a series of tunnels and quite well presented. We even got a hard hat which Louise looked a treat in, though it saved my scone a few times as some parts of the tunnels are very low. We decided to move onto Mareeba to hopefully get out of the rain as it’s considerably lower than Atherton. The c-park there was full which was a stroke of luck as we’re now in a great little bush park about 15km out of Mareeba at Granite Gorge. The kids love it as they got to feed the tiny rock wallabies here, inc a real little tacker who just popped out of the pouch for a few minutes. We also are now in fresh fruit country and it was unreal to have a pineapple tonight that actually tasted like a pineapple rather than the crap we get in Melb. Tomorrow we head to Clifton Beach, which is about 20km north of Cairns for a 5 days of R&R in a unit with Louise’s parents – yeah, no setting or packing up the camp!

 

Lawn Hill (Boodjamulla) National Park

Bit of an epic bringing you this post. The first attempt (a couple of days ago) I walked a couple of km and climbed one of the lookouts at Lawn Hill NP, as the gos was there was a NextG signal there, well they were right, there was a weak signal, and I had got halfway through uploading the photos when the signal decided to disappear!. Oh well, a cold beer and watching the sun go down was reward enough. Adel’s Grove, 10km down the road, was the next go, apparently a sure thing! Out of luck again, but lunch and a couple of beers again meant it wasn’t a dead loss. Now posting this from Burketown, so apologies if it’s all over the place as it’s been over a week since the last post.

The Stockman’s Challenge in Cloncurry wasn’t as exciting as we were expecting, a little bit we saw was just some well mannered horses trotting around a ring full of dirt/dust doing what they were told. So we high-tailed it north through a great section of country to the Burke & Wills roadhouse where we had lunch, country burgers again! We rang through to Lawn Hill NP to see if our site was free a day earlier then we booked but no luck, though Adel’s Grove just 10km had room so we headed there. On the way we passed through Gregory Downs which is no more than an old pub on the beautiful Gregory River, where a heap of people had already setup camp. We pressed on and the road soon turned to dirt and corrugations, so it was time to air down and while doing so a couple of friendly cattle decided to pop over and see what I was up to. We met a couple of road trains on the way into Adel’s Grove and the dust was amazing, which meant stopping completely as we couldn’t see a foot in front of us.

Adel’s Grove is an amazing oasis on Lawn Hill Creek, with the campsites situated under a canopy of Cabbage Palms, huge paperbarks, Leichhardt trees and Cluster Figs. It was a great shady spot and the kids had a swim in the emerald waters. A lot of people prefer Adel’s over camping in the park as there are really shady spots, hot showers, campfires and you’re allowed to fish – did I mention they had a bar! But Lawn Hill NP is also an oasis with the same vegetation, quiet and everything is right outside of your tent, you don’t need to drive anywhere. Our site is ideal as it’s quite sunny, which means the solar panels are out and the beer is being kept cold! Lawn Hill is gotta be up with one of the top five spots we’ve been to, an absolute beauty.

Early yesterday we hired a couple of canoes and headed upstream through the spectacular middle and upper gorges. The kids were rapt as we had to go up a small section of rapids and had to carry the boats from the middle to upper gorges (& back again). We didn’t see any freshwater crocs as hoped, but spotted a few turtles and heaps of fish. We had two tired little paddlers by the time we got back three hours later! There’s also heaps of birdlife up here, of the feathered variety that is, the Great Bowerbird and the Purple-crowned Fairy Wren amongst those spotted.

We’ve nearly done all the walks here, they’ve all been good but the highlight was today walking up to the top gorge, inland on the way up and back along the creek for the return journey. Aside from the great lookouts, the best bit for the kids was seeing a heap of turtles, and then working out they went crazy over the fruit being dropped from the fig trees. We spent half an hour feeding them, along with a decent gathering of fish who also didn’t mind them. The swimming here is also very good, though the kids are worried about the crocs nibbling their toes! The days have been perfect, not a cloud in the sky and around 30 degrees, with the nights being cool, though not arctic like further south. Well time to head off for another swim J

Next day we headed to the south of the park to Riversleigh, one of the major fossil areas in Australia, of the mammal era that is. We then checked out the Gregory Rv and had a quick run past the Riversleigh homestead before heading back to camp. On the way we stopped at one of the billabongs to see if we could spot some turtles and were lucky enough to see two freshwater crocs, the first for our trip.

Today was up early as we were hitting the road. Once we packed up we went off on a walk along Lawn Hill Ck and spotted another freshie, only a little tacker this time, about three feet. Once on the road we had went back through Gregory Downs and stopped at Burketown where we decided to setup camp. The last couple of hours having been spent checking the joint out, including the Albert River and seeing if we could spot a croc – no luck there. From here it’s onto Normanton and Karumba.

Been hot and windy today - over and out.

Dinosaur Country

Early Monday we stopped off at Longreach to buy Lachlan an Akubra - he was rapt as they were on special. We then headed west and stopped at Winton for lunch and checked whether the predominantly dirt road north to Richmond was open - it had luckily opened in the morning. It was a nice slow drive, as the road was pretty cut up after the rain. We encountered massive swarms of locusts, more emus and also a few wild pigs (of the non-living variety!). We also had two oncoming road trains, and as the road was only two tyre tracks the old rule of “biggest always wins” saw us quickly get right off the road, once past we were left in a cloud of dust. Finally we got to Richmond and set up camp overlooking the town lake. Richmond and the surrounding area is famous for its dinosaur fossils. Next day we checked out Kronosaurus Korner in town (top photo), which is a fossil display and where they also work on fossil preservation. The locusts in town are unbelievable, where we were camping every inch of the grass area was covered. They’re also big beasts casting shadows as they fly low overhead. The kids were happy they killed two, I reckon they’ve only got another coupla billion to go! It’s a shame really as all the foliage up here is so new and lush, then these little buggers fly out of nowhere and strip everything back to the branch! The birds and reptiles think it’s pretty good though with as much food to go for many weeks. We dropped into the butcher and bought up big time – you can’t beat freshly killed meat (that was their advertising slogan on the front of the shop). They were right, the steak was bewdyful. The arvo saw us catch up on domestic stuff like cleaning the trailer out after one of the long life milks leaked a while back, taking advantage of the great grassy site, unlimited water and a pleasant temp of 30 odd. Also had to get a gas bottle filled, and one of the tyres repaired after we noticed a nail in it which had been slowly leaking – again great country service, done in an hour and with a smile. The kids also cooled themselves at the water-park, and asked where all the locals were – we told them it’s only the crazy Victorians that swim up here at this time of the year!

Today we planned to head to Mt Isa, but only got as far as Cloncurry, about 400 odd km west of Richmond. There’s a cattle muster (a rodeo of sorts) starting tomorrow so we’ve decided to hang around for a day and check it out. We’re camped right next to the main hwy so we’ll be privileged to all the road train traffic overnight. We’ve also bought up big foodwise as we’ll be really out in the boon docks for four or five days at Lawn Hill NP.

p.s bottom photo is of Lachlan with water python at Rustie's show in Longreach.

Longreach - cowboy country

Yesterday we headed out to the Stockmans Hall of Fame in Longreach. Part of the deal was a demo with working dogs, horses and bullocks which the kids loved. 

We heard there was a shearing comp on in town  (the golden shears), so we then headed there. It was amazing watching how quick these guys (& girls) can shear sheep, in fact in the heats they had to shear four, whereas in the final ten was the go.  The weather was still quite mild but the sweat was pouring off these guys, can’t imagine how tough it would be during the hotter weather in an old tin shearing shed !

After that we went to another show (Rusty’s) where there a great demo of how they train working dogs and a gun whip cracker and a girl from Wangaratta with a demo on snakes. We hung around for a good ole sanger and bread afterwards.

Today we went to the Qantas Museum which had great displays, and we had a tour of the 747 they’ve got parked there. They had to virtually gut it to lighten the load to land it on the short strip here. The other issue they had was the strip was only half as wide as the wing span so they could only use the two middle engines in reverse thrust to bring it to a stop. 

We had a walk around town in the arvo which was pretty dead being a Sunday. Tomorrow we’ll be back as Lachlan wants to buy an Akubra and apparently this is the place to do it ! Today’s weather was spot on, mid twenties and the shorts finally came out. We’ll be heading to Mt Isa in a couple of days (via Richmond) where it’s been around 30 – ideal beer drinking weather.

To Birdsville & beyond

Apologies for the gap in posts - I thought Mr Rudd promised internet coverage to the bush - well apparently he didn't sort out this great part of Oz before he jumped ship!
From Tibooburra we explored the eastern end of Sturt NP, which was a group of old pastoral properties (sheep) bought back by the government. We camped at one of these - Olive Downs, a great spot just a few kms south of the QLD border. Next day we headed off west across one of the 4wd tracks in the park that runs pretty much parallel with the dog fence. With all the rain this park is looking amazing and the wildlife is amazing, from emus to other birdlife - the kids lost count of Kangaroos at 150+. A last stop in the park was at Fort Grey where Sturt (the explorer) had a northern depot on Lake Pinaroo - apparently his party carried a whale boat all the way from Adelaide to here and part way back again, finally realising I guess what a daft idea it was - no inland sea up here buddy, though if here now you could partly understand the thinking.
We passed through Cameron Corner (SA, NSW & QLD) for lunch and another country burger and filled up at $2 a litre, the dearest to date. Then it was due west for approx 60km crossing a series of sand dunes that pretty much run north-south and are quite close together. With the track only graded recently and the dunes being quite sharp it was a continuous roller coaster, of the Toyota variety. Lachlan wasn't impressed at all, and we had to stop a few times as he was feeling crook.
We turned onto the Strzelecki Track and headed north past the Moomba gas and oil fields and setup camp on the Cooper Creek at Innamincka. I thought the tracks had been in good condition but the trailer thought otherwise, with a broken mount on the stove, a broken stay and a juice pack in the food box that decided to share its contents with everything else in the box! A wheel nut on the cruiser also worked its way loose!
The next day was spent exploring around Innamincka, mainly taking in all the Burke and Wills historical sites. The arvo was spent repairing the stuff that broke the day before and taking advantage of the hot showers.
Birdsville was our goal the following day. The Cordillo Downs Rd has just opened but was 4wd only so we decided to head north along that. It was a great drive, not fast though with constant waterway crossings and detours, which just meant that just graded a path around the dodgy piece of track in question! We decided to take the 160km “short cut” track via Cordillo Downs Station, checking out the huge historical shearing shed made out of stone with a curved corrugated roof. This is now cattle country, Dingoes made sure of that. This track was a lot rougher but a great drive, stopping for lunch at a remote billabong and stopping to let a “flock” of emus come up and check us out – must be because Lachlan and Chantal look a little like emus! Once on the main Birdsville road the speed picked up, but with tyres aired down for the rough tracks we couldn’t sit on normal hwy speeds. (Stop press: Now in Birdsville, we have just heard this track and most roads out of Birdsville are closed with the rain late yesterday and overnight – only 15mm and most roads are closed – scary really!)
In Birdsville we setup in light rain which overnight got heavier, leaving the camping area very muddy – the type of stuff that sticks to your feet and before you know it you’re a couple of inches taller. We got up late and spent the day exploring Birdsville which was restrictive with the rain and it being bitterly cold. Highlight was the pie and coffee at the bakery, though long-life milk makes for a distinctive taste for your latte. Their signature offering is their pies – we indulged in “Curried Camel” and “Kangaroo & Claret”. And how cool is this bakery, you can order a XXXX with your pie ! Over the three days I reckon we raised the share price of the bakery with the amount of cash we off loaded there! You can get a real feel for how many people would be here come race weekend in early Sept, with infrastructure all over the place – deserted but ready!
Come Thursday and they finally opened the road north to Bedourie (& Mt Isa) just after lunch. Though we were hoping to head east via Betoota and Windorah to Longreach we high tailed out of town as there was no decision when that road would be open, and considering more rain was predicted we were more than happy to change our plans. The first 50km north was OK but then the road deteriorated, and there were numerous sections with water on the road and long muddy sloppy sections, which made for a heap of fun and turned the car to a shade of orangey/brown. It was very slow going to Bedourie where we washed off a heap of mud with the complimentary hot springs water high pressure hose. North to Boulia and we had a good run on asphalt except for one 15km muddy section and as usual we setup up camp as the sun was setting.
Today was a long haul on the blacktop (570km) to Longreach which was a welcome change, it was all single lane width which made passing an interesting process as the edges of the road were still very soft and muddy. All camping options were booked out with grey nomads, so we ended up 25km east at IIfracombe.
The nights are still cold, with thermals still the norm at night and borderline beanie territory. It is slowly warming up during the day, but Louise is still holding off pulling the bikini out! No cases of scurvy yet, even though we hanging out to stock up on fresh fruit tomorrow in Longreach. The kids are doing well with schoolwork and are pretty good with their diaries. We’re also enjoying the half hour extra of daylight at the end of the day, one of the advantages of being at the pointy end of the country in winter.
The kids have asked for their mates to join up as followers, so get to it you orrible lot :-)
Over and out.

Corner Country

It was smooth sailing from Broken Hill to Packsaddle Roadhouse where we stopped by a dry creek for lunch. The road from Packsaddle to Tibooburra was mainly dirt with lots of fun dips to cheer ‘whoo’ as we rode each one. As usual we arrived late in town so we headed straight out to the nearest campsite (Dead Horse Gully Campground) in the Sturt NP. Surrounded by granite outcrops and a pink sunset we sipped wine and soaked up the silence of the night - the stars are amazing out here. It’s a great time of the year to be up here, if you can brave the chilly nights – there’s virtually no flies, it’s cool during the day and at the moment everything is green after the heavy rains in March.

We awoke to our first warm day and were able to wear shorts and t-shirts today...yeh! We explored the nearby granite outcrops spotting several wild goats before heading down to a make shift gold mining display near our camp. The kids hopefully prospected the ground for gold as we walked.

Lunch was at TJ’s Roadhouse for a hearty hamburger and filling the cruiser up at $1.55 a litre, before visiting the town museum and National Parks Office. Then back to camp for our first restful afternoon.

Tomorrow we plan to head to the east of the park around the Gorge Loop Road before camping in the north of the park at Olive Downs Campground very close to the QLD border. More dirt roads & tracks after that, cutting across to Cameron’s Corner, and then onto Innamincka. The car already has character, covered in mud all over to show Chris doesn’t mind driving through rather than around water on the road! Not sure whether the roads from Innamincka to Birdsville are open, all we know is the route we wanted to take is a vast lake at the moment – could be a heap of fun whatever way we end up going!