Longreach - Winton - Mount Isa

Longreach – Tuesday 26 & Wednesday 27 July 2011

Well here we are in Longreach, the true Outback of QLD and probably Australia, there are stockmen and cowboys everywhere. Along with miles and miles (not kilometres out here) of bushland driving along the road you expect to see the Bonanza boys riding their horses. Apart from all that it is a nice town, clean and tidy with proud residents. 

We spent the day at the Stockman all of Fame, an excellent museum of Australian Outback history, starting with the discovery, the pioneers then onto how the outback has been tamed.  We took in the show, with a cowboy riding and talking about stock horses, camels and a bullock team, all the time telling yarns.

Stockman Hall of Fame Longreach

Story telling in the Outback

Stockmen Hall of Fame

The next day we visited the Qantas Museum, as this area is the birth place of Qantas.  This is another full day, we had a tour through a 747, top to bottom, then walked on the wing and sat in the Captains seat, Capt’n Kenny was in charge again!!.   

Boeing 747 Wing Walk

Sucked In

Flying high and In Charge

That night we took a cruise up the Thomson River on a paddle steamer to watch the sunset on the river then had a drover’s dinner, stew & damper, this too was a fun night topped off with the bare foot poet telling yarns.

Longreach to Winton – Thursday 28 July 2011

Easy drive today, only 188 km to Winton to visit the Waltzing Matilda centre, as this is the birthplace of the swagman and the waltzing matilda yarn.  The centre was full of history about the story, along with plenty of history and museum pieces from the area.  We strolled the main street, and visited the pub for a beer in the outback.

Waltzing Matilda Cetre Winton

That night back in the caravan park they had a couple of bush poets and story tellers, it was quiet a night with them telling great yarns, 2 ladies who cruise the outback telling bush stories.  As we sat down one of them came up and started asking questions about where we came from and who we are, she was the ex union rep from Canberra, very interesting conversation with her.

Winton to Mount Isa – Friday 29 July 2011

We were up and gone by 8am as it was a 460+ day, the road was rough, we did manage to see a mob of camels just out of Winton and a number of emus, but of course no opportunity to stop and take photos.  On the way we stopped at McKinley to visit the WalkAbout Pub, made famous in the Crocodile Dundee movies, didn’t have a drink but there is still a lot if memorabilia from the movie there.   We arrived in Cloncurry around lunch time and had some nice fresh bread rolls form the Cloncurry Bakery, and those people that know me I can’t ever go past a fresh cream bun, to bread rolls and cream buns for $4.00 a bargain.

Walkabuot Hotel

After lunch and more fuel we headed for Mount Isa, the terrain changes dramatically very quickly.  After 500+k of nothing just grass, a few trees across flat plains, we were now crossing mountain range after mountain range all the way to Isa.  Mount Isa sits in the middle of all these ranges and the mine is in the middle of town, very different but still a nice town.  We settled into the Big 4 Argylla Caravan Park, nice park with plenty of red dirt, but that is now becoming the norm.

Mount Isa – Saturday 30 July 2011

Woke to a great day, temps about 28deg, but this is now becoming what we expect, hope everybody is enjoying the great minus temps at home still!!

Today is clean-up day, after a couple of weeks of dust and dirt we needed to do a full on spring clean, the van was cleaned inside and out the washing was brought up to date and of course the car was washed.  Domestics were all done by midday, off to town we went and visited the underground hospital left over from the war days, a fully working underground hospital very interesting.  Also had a trip to the look out, this is where you realise that the mine is in town. 

Underground Hospital Mount Isa

Sign Post to Everywhere - 1898km to Canberra

The mine is in the city

Looking out over Mount Isa

Did our grocery and drinks shopping then back home to get organised for the next few days.  We head off in the morning for 650+km to Threeways, then 540+- to Mataranka, 2 very big days ahead.  We look as though we will be in Darwin by next Thursday; we are both very excited and looking forward to Catherine, Ryan and Tim arriving in Darwin Monday week to spend a week with us. 

Where we have travelled so far - tomorrow off to NT

The best Letterbox so far

Cairns - Mount Surprise - Normanton - Karumba - Cloncurry - Longreach

Cairns – Mount Surprise – Wednesday 20 July 2011

Up and on away bidding farewell to tropical Cairns and the luxury of green grass and palm trees.  We headed out up the tablelands to Mareeba, the trip up the mountain was similar to the Clyde Mountain between Batemans Bay and Canberra.  Whilst in Mareeba we visited the Coffee Works factory to taste their coffees, teas and had a look through their museum of coffee machines, grinders and such, a very interesting place with very nice coffee.  Back on the road we travelled down through Atherton, Ravenshoe (the highest town in Qld) and Mt Garnett, on the way we stopped at Innot Springs for lunch. Here the hot water springs flow down through the creek, there are very hot patches of water and some very cold, and not that inviting really.



A small part of the museum at Coffee Works



Later in the afternoon we arrived at the Bedrock Village Caravan Park, no grassy sites, but plenty of dirt.  The park owners have a great personality and very friendly making you feel welcome, this is rare in some parks we have been to.  That night we went to the park dinner and campfire sing along, a lot of fun even though the average age is well above ours.



Sing Along at Bedrock Village



Catching up on the Paperwork

Pam, Angie, Jess, Nick, Marlene & Ken after Happy Hour @ Bedrock

Mount Surprise – Thursday 21 July 2011

Today we are off on a tour of the Undara Lava tubes, a very interesting National Park.  The tour was a half day, we walked the rim of the Kilarny Volcano then walked through two lava tubes.  A sensational experience, to see results of lava spewed from the volcanoes down through the valley’s and forming tubes.  A truly incredible experience and should be on the list to visit.

Inside a Lava Tube

Deep inside a Lava Tube

Jess the Tour Guide

Inside a Lava tube about 100 metres long

We were back to the caravan park by mid-afternoon for scones & coffee, then catch up on emails and bills.  We caught up with a couple of others from the park for happy hour that went into dinner and into the evening until it was too cold to sit outside.

Mount Surprise to Normanton – Friday 22 July 2011

On the road by 8am for a long drive to Normanton, we are now well and truly in the Queensland Outback, all roads are straight, very few bends and the country side is rough with few trees, plenty of cattle roaming around right down to the roadside. The road soon went from a double lane road to a single lane road.  When a vehicle comes in the opposite direction you move onto the dirt to let them through, it takes a while to get used to moving on and off the bitumen.  Then of course you have 3 & 4 trailer Road Trains to make it just that little bit more interesting.  We saw an incredible sight of mother emu and baby emu crossing the road, then there was another, then another who just missed the vehicle coming in the opposite direction, then as we started off again a fifth emu came running out and we missed it but about 10 metres, close enough believe me.

Where we are heading

This is a mian road, approx 150k was like this

We travelled through Georgetown and Croydon on our way to Normanton, stopping at Croydon for lunch and a look around visiting the oldest “General Store in Australia”.  We arrived I Normanton mid-afternoon to a dry and dirty caravan park. 

Croydon an old mining town

Since we had left home we heard that our old neighbours from Isabella Plains were travelling up through Central Australia, then across to Normanton arriving there about the same time as us.  We modified our plans to meet them in Normanton to catch up with them.  We had a great meal of fresh Barramundi at the caravan, it was nice to catch up with friends from home to share our stories.

Tim & Kerryn with Marlene @ Burke & Wills camp

Krys a lifesize replica of a croc caught in the Norman River



Normanton to Karumba – Saturday 23 July 2011

We moved from Normanton to Karumba, a total distance of 70km, Karumba was a better caravan parks and facilities and it is right on the Gulf of Carpentaria, it is very impressive to stand on the beach on the Gulf.  We booked a half day fishing charter on the Gulf, heading out at midday and after an hour we were out on the Gulf 11 miles of shore.  The waters were very calm and only 22feet deep, and very green (much different to the colours of the ocean on the south coast) incredible. 

Well we fished all afternoon, and luckily I caught the first fish but Marlene caught a bigger fish.  We got back to shore about 5pm with a bag full of fish, that now had to be cleaned, guess who got that job and you wonder why I don’t like fishing. 

Marlene's Fish

Ken's fish - its bigger than it looks

Happy Fishing - No real competition!!

Lucky Ken cleaninig the fish

 

We did have time to visit the local pub for a very spectacular sunset across the Gulf, then back home to cook some of our catch.  All the cleaning and scaling was worth it they tasted great.  We still have a freezer full to share with the kids in Darwin.

Sunset Karumba Point

Sunset across he Gulf of Carpentaria

Finally enjoyiong our catch

We also bid farewell to Jessie & Angie, Nick & Pam and Tim & Kerryn as we are all heading different directions the next day.

Karumba to Cloncurry – Sunday 24 July 2011

We were on the road by 9 for a very long day to Cloncurry, just short of 500km.  We picked up fuel in Normanton then headed for the Burke and Wills Roadhouse for lunch and more fuel so we can get through to Cloncurry.  The road was rough and narrow for the 180km from Normanton to the Roadhouse, with a lot of traffic, so it was on the road the off the road all the way.  We managed to see  8 Emus in a group just off the road and a couple of beautiful Eagles feeding on road kill.

Road Train at Burke & Wills roadhaouse

After lunch is was only a couple of hundred k’s to Cloncurry, the weather was warm to hot, we had the air conditioner on all day, and not to keep us warm.  We stayed at the Cloncurry Discovery Caravan Park, it has grass, so this is a nice change form the last few days.  The night has turned very cool, no jumpers but an extra blanket maybe needed. 

Cloncurry to Longreach – Monday 25 July 2011

First job for the day at 6:30am was to send a text to my old mate and 'brother' Stevie, as he turns the big 50 today, Happy Birthday and go the Saints!!!

On the road by 8:30am for a big rough and basically boring drive to Longreach.  Our first stop is Winton 370k’s, and a head wind, so it was a close call with only 5 litres left in the tank.  The road is straight and rough and the land is baron, not much to look at hour after hour.  Our most exciting part was a road train that had rolled within an hour of us arriving, there was truck andtrailers everywhere and also cattle, the clean-up job will take days. 

The road in front

And the road behind

We finally arrived in Longreach late afternoon, this is a nice little town in the middle of the outback with plenty to do.  Our plan is to stay here for 3 days then back up the rough road to Mt Isa.





Cairns and Surrounding Areas

Cairns – Port Douglas - Daintree – Sunday 17 July 2011

Woke to a beautiful day with overnight temps getting down to 19deg, a little similar to Canberra in January but this is July.  We headed off to Port Douglas early to have “Breakfast with the Birds” (feathered kind) at the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary, what a great experience you are in the whole enclosure and all these lovely cockatoo’s and parrots are there as well.  They are all very well behaved and leave you to your breakfast.  We had a tour through the enclosure feeding all the beautiful birds, a must do if you are in the area.



One of our Breakfast friends



Walking thrugh the rainforest enclosure

Somebody kept watching us

Mating Jabirus on their nest

After the morning there we headed for the Port Douglas markets on the beach front, nowhere near as good as earlier markets but Marlene still enjoyed them.  We then headed off up to the Daintree for lunch and a cruise on the Daintree River. 

Our cruise was on the Crocodile Express, we managed to see 3 very big and I must say docile crocs on the river and 2 baby crocs, one 250mm long and the other 600mm long.  They are something of beauty in the wild, and my guess is not so docile if annoyed.




Friendly Croc 1

 


Friendly Croc 2



The Croc Express

On our trip back to Cairns we dropped into the Mosman Gorge, a great boardwalk through the rainforest up to spectacular water falls.  Very busy place but worth it, considering that Mr Whippy Ice Cream van was there making a killing.

Ferns growing in the rainforest

We had left home at 7:30am and arrived back just in time to catch the 6pm news, it was a really good day out.

Cairns – Kuranda – Monday 18 July 2011

Up and going early again to catch a bus to the railway station to board the Historic Kuranda Train, it is a great trip up to the tablelands to visit the village of Kuranda.  The rail trip takes about 1.5hrs, passing through 15 tunnels on the way up. The village is a tourist haven with plenty of market type shops and places to eat. We wandered around looking at all the shops before catching the Skyrail back down the mountain to Cairns.  The skyrail is 7.5km long and travels across the top of the rainforest with 2 stop off points on the way.  It is a great deal of fun, with the opportunity to walk through the rainforest with spectacular views across the mountains and waterfalls.  Back down the bottom by 5:30 and home by 6:30 it was another big day, this is nearly as hard as working!

Train heading across 1 of the many Bridges

Baron Falls

Views across the valley

Skyrail heading down into Cairns

Cairns – Tuesday 19 July 2011

Rest day and clean up and grocery shop day today.  All the washing is up to date and the car and caravan have been washed ready to head off tomorrow.  We went into Cairns city to walk along the Esplanade and have a coffee, it is interesting to see all these people around the swimming pool and lying in the sun, the weather was just fantastic a top of close to 28 – 30deg.   We shopped for groceries and beer then back home to catch up on the paperwork, blog and tax returns.

Cairns Water ront Low Tide

Cairns swimming pool

Our Site in Cairns

Facts about the Trip so Far

We have now been on the road for just over 3 weeks, and yes it does getting tiring even though you are on holidays. 

We have been travelling north since leaving home, it is now time to turn left and head west for the next 6 weeks.

Distance Travelled: 3,994km                        Average Fuel Consumption: 13.9 l/100km

Fuel Used: 555.3litres                     Most Expensive: $1.58                   Average Fuel Cost: $1.50

Hours in the Car: 68:01 hrs