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.