Making our way through Mount Surprise to Atherton

We left the "V8 Super Car" town and decided to travel on an inland "Developmental Road" to Mount Surprise thereby skipping the busy coastal highway through Cairns and onto Atherton. We checked with Queensland Roads and were assured that the road was good despite some (VERY HEAVY) roadworks taking place! Well, yes the road was good, but a SINGLE lane highway! Quite hairy if one is not used to pulling over into the dirt when a road train is coming towards you with no intention of slowing down.

We eventually made it to Mt Surprise in one piece, after stopping for coffee at Bluewater Springs, and stayed in the well known Bedrock Caravan Park in the tiny town. The owners have done a huge amount of work developing the park. We bought the most delicious bread rolls from the onsite bakery which were the best we had tasted for years. It's also very unusual for a caravan park to have its own onsite bakery. They also run tours to the nearby, ancient "lava tubes" formed by the Undara volcano which erupted 190,000 years ago. (That was why we stopped in Mt Surprise). In fact, all 6(?) businesses in Mount Surprise need to have a range of services on offer for the passing tourists. I loved "Planet Earth" with its weird lounge, museum and kitchen all contained in one big, old shed with German backpackers as staff.

Walking through the tubes was quite scary because the various patterned rocks (manganese, calcium and basalt) above our heads seemed very unstable. The only way to see these tubes are on a guided tour. I have a feeling that in the years to come it will probably become too dangerous to keep walking through the lava tubes as they could collapse at any time.

After our morning of walking through the tubes we headed on to Atherton, our first stop in rain forest country - something I have been really looking forward to. We couldn't get over the contrast between the outback of the Queensland bush to the lush, green fields and hills around Atherton. I have a feeling that I will get some beautiful photos of the sights coming our way. I didn't manage today as the mist around the hills and on the road was so thick we had no place to safely stop and take in the views that were on both sides of the narrow, winding road. Chris was so relieved to arrive safely at our new caravan park after pulling the caravan through all that mist. Me too!!

Sojourn in Townsville

If we were young and looking for a place to settle I think it would be Townsville - for the moment anyway! It's laid back, tropical, just populated enough and easily managed in a car or on a bike. It has brilliant cycle tracks all over the city. It is on the ocean and surrounded by mountains. (Not sure how it is in the wet season though. Doesn't appear to be cyclone proof or have cyclone warning signs in evidence!)

We discovered a wonderful cycle track along the Ross River that wound its way through beautiful park lands with the most amazing trees and trunks we have ever seen. The track was about 10 mins from our caravan park - The Walkabout Palms, which just managed to give us a site for a few days as everyone in Townsville is preparing for the V8 super cars on the weekend. All accommodation is fully booked. Nice V8 super car weekend prices too - $40.00 per night!! The most we have ever paid for a site.

All the buildings and houses are a mumble jumble of eclectic styles and colours. The rows of shops too! I felt sorry for the people in the house whose lawn is completely petal covered - though absolutely beautiful, I thought!

We have had a lovely time here living mostly on pineapple, paw-paw, corn - and hot chips!!! (Just kidding!)

We are packing up early tomorrow morning on our way to Mount Surprise. Who knows what that will bring?!

Across the Queensland outback

We arrived in Charters Towers from Tennnant Creek after 6 days of travelling. It felt the same as crossing the Nullabor though towns along the way are closer together and there is definitely more drinking water around. (The water from the artesian wells in Julia Creek was the best I have ever tasted.)

The Queensland border is just before the town of Camoweal. We travelled from there through Barkly Homestead, Mt Isa, Julia Creek, Hughendon, Richmond and finally Charters Towers on the Barklay and Flinders Highways. Many of the towns that we passed through often appear rundown though always have a heritage hotel for a cold beer - and a caravan park. The landscape along the way is known as the Tablelands. No other name would suit it- flat, flat, flat for kilometre after kilometre. So flat and boring that I didn't even take out my camera. It's also amazing that we didn't hit any cattle, sheep, kangaroos or wild pigs. There are hundreds of these dead animals lying along the edge of the road.

We spent 2 nights in Mt Isa as we needed a food shop. Everything in our little fridge was starting to smell!! Mt Isa is a mining town with visible evidence of stacks, mine-shafts and mine dumps. I don't think the air is the best to breathe! It also reminded me of Crown Mines where I had grown up.

I can't help noticing all the wide-brimmed hats that so many people wear here in outback Queensland. Must be the stockmen in them -after all, this is cattle country that we have just passed through! The Queensland drawl is something else quite different for us, mate.

We are now in the most beautiful caravan park in Charters Towers relieved that we won't be travelling back over the Tablelands in a hurry.

Newcastle Waters - population 5?, with us!

On our way to Tennant Creek we turned right off the Stuart Highway into a town called Newcastle Waters. It is completely disused except for a few heritage buildings, an old school building and church, a restored post office building where a few young guys live (may be station hands for the nearby Newcastle Station) and a magnificent brass statue of a drover - a reminder of the meeting place Newcastle Waters was for all passing drovers. It was the evening and we needed to stop. Hoping we hadn't found ourselves in a real life Steven King novel we asked the only person we saw if it would be OK to spend the night on a perfectly mowed piece of lawn near the church. His answer was, "I never saw you!" - so we set up home. We both revelled in being 2 of the only people in a whole town. We had escaped the grey nomads and all the families in their motor homes! (A nearby rest area on the main highway was packed when we passed by the next morning.)

We rode around on our bikes, stopping to walk through all the old heritage, corrugated iron buildings. Nearby was an amazing wetland filled with beautiful waterbirds - pelicans, egrets and others. We watched the sun go down and then, as the dawn broke, went on our bikes to watch the water birds swarm onto the wetland and the sun rise.

That evening and early morning was a rare treat to have been completely alone. The only noise was from the odd road trains carrying cattle from the station.

The one thing about traveling like gypseys is that we never know what's around the corner!

On the road to Tennant Creek from Berry Springs

We were so refreshed after our swim in Berry Springs that all we wanted to do was find the next swimming spot which we did in Litchfield Park - a national park just outside the small "village" of Batchelor. We stayed in a lovely, spacious park which was a treat after being squashed into the caravan park in Darwin. It was so big we could ride around on our bikes and look at everything we wanted - like the feeding of the wild birds in the evenings. Spending the day in Litchfield Park (just out of Batchelor) seeing the majestic waterfalls and swimming in the natural rock holes was fantastic. Chris had an absolute ball and decided that this was his best swimming spot ever! We could have stayed for a week or more but we are keen to make our way to Cairns. (By the way, the girl jumping into the waterhole is not me!!!! she was with her friend and they were trying to capture images of each other jumping in. They were having so much fun and reminded me so much of Mich and Rosanne!)

The NT roads are nowhere near as good as the roads in WA but we drive along slowly, navigating caravan after caravan, motorhomes, road-trains and pot holes - the highway being flanked on both sides by all types of termite mounds. Quite amazing! We had to hit some of our traveling time during school holidays! I think everyone from Vic, SA and NSW are escaping their winter to hit the warmth up north. Hopefully, when holidays are over there will only be the grey nomads left on the road - (together with the road trains!). Some of the minor roads are only one lane width and when oncoming cars approach someone has to pull right over... and avoid a cracked windscreen!

We found the next swimming spot at Mataranka Thermal Pool. It is amazing to think that it flows from the nearby Rainbow Springs at 30.5million litres each day. The springs look as blue as a home pool - only with sand, rocks, fish, logs and ferns on the bottom. It was great going down for a morning bath before we left - 34 deg! The springs are surrounded by huge palm trees whose fronds lie all over the ground due to the population of red bats that force the fronds to fall onto the ground. Quite messy. I thought a lopper had been in!!

While at the Homestead caravan park we met a girl who travels around in her caravan, doing gigs with her guitar and collecting money for orphans in Burma. She has a son who lives in Perth and will visit us when we get back. She does a great gig and has appeared at many music festivals. (Rebecca More - just released her own CD).

Along the way we stopped at Larrimah (population 10) and met a real, NT character, Fran (she in the pink t shirt), who runs a whacky tea-room. She twisted our arm - and those of everyone who stopped to have a peep at the place - to have one of her scones or pasties, or pasties or pasties. I must say, we shared a serving of scones and they were delicious. A bit overpriced but considering Fran's location thought she deserved it.

Stopping and having a look at the Daly Waters world famous pub - extensively used by WW2 servicemen, was very interesting. The caravan park next door was packed and we had no intention of staying anywhere near the place though we had met a couple the day before who said they had a ball there the night before. We are not the greatest beer drinkers and I suppose that's the lure of the place. You can win free beers if you have a small bet on the odd or even of a dice!

So we moved on, wanting to find a free camping spot before getting to Tennant Creek. Diesel, and everything else on the way into the red centre is very expensive. We had to get diesel at $1.95 pl.

Also, I can't resist showing you how some people carry their bikes - and we were worried that ours would fall off!

I saw the beautiful iron work of a wheel of an old shunter in the pub in Pine Creek.