TIME TO HEAD FOR THE QUEENSLAND COAST THEN HOME

As we didn't catch any decent fish we stopped & bought a couple of kilo of prawns & some beautiful fresh king salmon on our way out of town. They are really nice. We both reckon now we've seen Karumba we wouldn't bother to come back again & we've spoken to a few other people since who feel the same way. If you don't fish you're pretty well an outsider. Would you believe that when some of the regulars have happy hour they ring a bell to let their friends know! You know you're on the outside then!
We stopped in to see the historic Gulflander train at Normanton as it was out on a trip on our way up. From what I understand it's not really the train that's so important, as there were several different trains that did the trip, but it's the actual journey from Normanton to Croydon & the fact that the lines were built so many years ago in 1891 because of the gold rush & to overcome the 'most flooded & rotten country in Australia'. They used hollow steel sleepers packed with mud that withstood flooding & most of the original sleepers are still in place. The  train has recently been restored & still does a weekly trip to Croydon. We didn't bother going on the train trip 'cos we would have had to come back for the car & van!

We headed off to finish our trip across the Savannah Way which actually starts in Broome in W.A. & finishes in Cairns. We've now driven from  one side to the other & lots of it is dirt but lots more interesting! So much better than bitumen, & then you add in the river & creek crossings, gorges, waterfalls; that's what I call fun!
From Normanton we headed through Croydon, Georgetown, Mt Surprise & then down to Undara National Park to do a tour of the lava tubes. Around about 190,000 years ago there were actually 164 volcanoes in this region alone. Who would have thought?

The lava flow from Undarra covered a region of about 55 square kilometres. When a volcano erupts the outer makes a crust & the lava continues to flow through it; this eventually makes a hollow tube. The tour was great; really interesting. They took us into a couple of different tubes & one had water flowing through it & the reflections were incredible. It's definitely worth doing. The accommodation at Undarra is pretty unique; there's a caravan park & also a heap of old railway carriages that have been done up like new & made into units.

The 'top end' has been great; we're pretty sad about leaving it (especially the beautiful warm weather!).  The bird life has been amazing; so many water birds, emus both large & small, there have been so many different types of kangaroo, wild pigs (on one road there must have been about 20 or more!), several pretty big snakes, wetlands, national parks; you name it. It's been beautiful & so interesting. 

After Undarra we headed off through Innot Hot Springs where if you're not in the caravan park you actually have to dig into the sand on the riverbank to get any water, (so we didn't bother). We kept driving until we came across a lovely rest area beside the river just before Ravenshoe where we lit the fire & settled in for another beautiful night.

The next morning we headed up to Atherton. We've been there before but it's such a lovely area. We drove back through Yungaburra which is a gorgeous little town with lots of cafes & a huge old pub. After a lovely lunch in one of the cafes we headed off & drove the 'waterfall way' once again. We did it about 4 years ago on our way back from the cape & it's just lovely. 

We'd also stopped at a dairy near Millaa Millaa where they make their own cheeses, yoghurts & dips & we had to stop once again & buy some as they were so good! (and have an icecream of course!)  The views on the tableland are magnificent; it's so green, so mountainous & beautiful. I could almost live up there!

We drove down the mountain then to head for Paronella Park as Phill really wanted to see it once again. On our way down a guy came over the CB radio telling everyone to watch out for the cassowary on the side of the road. They call this area the 'cassowary coast' but we still didn't quite catch on to what he was saying until here's this cassowary standing in the ditch beside the highway! I tried to quickly get a photo but only got a tree!
Paronella Park is amazing. It includes a castle, a grand ballroom, a theatre, beautiful gardens, a grand staircase all built by hand by a Spanish cane farmer many years ago. The current owners are fixing it up.  We were going to go through it again & stay there but we could see it from the suspension bridge over the falls & it hadn't changed much since last time we were there so it wasn't worth the $38 each to go in. It usually includes a spot in the caravan park but it was full up anyway.
So we carried on down the road until we found a great park beside the river & set up camp for the night. Roast lamb & veges with a lovely glass of wine beside the campfire on the banks of the river. Ahhh, the serenity! 

We had planned to head down the coast straight for Hervey Bay but Alan & Carol (our friends from Adelaide who we'd met over in W.A.) were heading up towards Cairns on the inland roads & we wanted to catch up with them. So, when we got to Townsville we once again headed inland through Charters Towers & down to Clermont where we spent a night together & what a night! It was so lovely to see them once again after 2 years. We spent the afternoon talking then had a 'few' drinks around the camp fire before heading up to the pub for dinner after which we headed back to the caravan park to once again sit around the fire & have a bottle of port or two.


We really didn't feel like getting up the next morning and another night with them would have been lovely but we had to head off again 'cos we're starting to run out of time. Thanks guys for a great night!
We'd been going to head further south from there to meet up with Garnie & Marg; our other friends we'd met in W.A. who come from Tassie but they're heading for Inskip after that so we decided to head for Hervey Bay & we'll catch up with them on the way home.

We stopped at the Calliope River Campgrounds on the way back; another wonderful free camp site. We were amazed at the size of the area & there must have been 60 or more vans there! You can camp on both sides of the river for about 500 metres, even on the sandy shore right on the side of the river. It's just lovely. Sometimes I can't believe where you can camp for free! We are so lucky.

On our way to Hervey Bay the next day, we stopped in to see our friends Errol & Neriel at Childers. They're on 17 acres there & it's just beautiful & it was so nice to catch up with them but not for nearly long enough. 

Time to head for Hervey Bay & see Bec, Chris & the kids. We'd booked into the caravan park instead of parking in their front yard as we thought it would be nice for them to come down to the beach. Trouble is, the weather's been terrible. We've had dinner at their place each night now as it just hasn't been nice enough down here for much at all. The boys have been sleeping over so we've had a bit of extra time with them so that's been great. We took Blake shopping for his birthday watch yesterday & he's so proud of it & he looks so grown up with a real silver watch on his arm! Here he is showing it off!

We woke up this morning to the sun trying to peep through the clouds & thought we might have had a better day. The kids got a bit of time making friends on the beach & Bec & Lexi came down but no sooner had they jumped on the playground than down it poured. Bugger. Back to the van again. So much for sunny Queensland!
We can't really complain though. Up until now we've had the best weather; mostly up around 30 degrees all the way & hardly any rain.
We can't get onto Garnie & Marg so we don't know what to do tomorrow and it's getting windy now to go with the wet so Inskip probably wouldn't be very nice. We'll try them again in the morning, otherwise we'll head home.
8 weeks & about 12,000 kms have gone by pretty quickly. We've had a ball but now it's back to work to start saving up for the next one!

GREGORY DOWNS TO KARUMBA

We pulled out of Lawn Hill National Park and called into Adele's Grove to have a look around. We'd met 2 couples who really bucketed the place but we disagree; we thought the place was really nice, very shady, beautiful gardens and right on the river. No power or water and only hot showers for $34.00 per night seemed a bit steep to us compared to the N.P. so we're glad we didn't stay there though!  The road out was pretty rutted & boggy so with rain coming we're glad to be out of there.

From there we went to Gregory Downs and fuelled up then headed back to the Savannah Way via Augustus Downs Cattle Station. It must have been one of the worst roads we've been on; lots of ruts, bog holes & damage. After a very long day of driving we headed up the Burketown road to see the Leichhardt River. It's awesome; at least 1/2 a km wide but not a lot of water at the moment.  There's also a waterfall; it would be incredible to see it in full flood. The amount of rivers & creeks in this area is amazing; I had no idea!

We headed on to the next camp spot but we'd just pulled up and set up camp and got the fire out when there were a couple of claps of thunder and within a couple of minutes it was starting to rain. Not wanting to be caught on such bad dirt roads in the wet & chance getting bogged, we quickly packed up and hightailed it towards Normanton. We were hoping to make it to Little Bynoe River but it was already late and the sun was long gone when we came across Flinders River.  It was full of water (there's a causeway to get across) with plenty of room to camp beside  it and we'd outrun the rain so we set up beside the river. What a lovely place to camp; so much better than any caravan park. We lit the fire and settled back with a drink before cooking dinner & hitting the sack. We woke just on sunrise and peaked out the back window; what a beautiful sight to wake up to. So many birds! There were pelicans, brolgas, cranes, plovers and so many others; it was amazing! They reckon about half of Australia's birds live in the N.T.  JJ decided to catch a fish for breaky while I got the bucket out and washed the caravan; I've never seen it so dirty!  J.J. had no luck fishing and I'd finished washing the van so we settled for weetbix & a cup of tea.

On the road again, we stopped in at Burke & Wills camp spot no:119 where Burke died. It's hard to imagine what these early explorers went through. We have a lot to thank them for.

We rolled on to Normanton where we both looked at each other and laughed. There is bugger all in Normanton. A run down BP service station, a purple pub, 2 little stores, a few old buildings and the historic rail museum where the Gulflander runs from. After hearing that's it's the only major town in the gulf we'd expected so much more!

 

So, on to Karumba to find our caravan park. Once set up I did an oil change on the old girl and gave her a wash (the Landcruiser - not JJ) while J.J. went to catch our dinner. The cruiser is ready to go but we had to go and buy barra & chips for dinner.

I think the only thing anyone comes to Karumba for is to go fishing. The whole town is full of 4 wheel drives, boats & boat trailers. The carpark outside the caravan park is full of boat trailers. The caravan park is full of 4x4's. People stay here for months on end & everyone goes out fishing every day. The fish cleaning tables always have a line-up & the place stinks of fish. We can't get over it; we've never seen anything like it. Who knows what they do with all the fish? You can only eat so much. There's always a line up at the boat ramp; it's like Queen Street. 
 

The owners of the  caravan park reckon it's boat rage; not road rage. They reckon it's interesting to just sit out on the water & watch how everyone reckons they have their own space & watch out anyone who gets into it! We're feeling a bit out of it; we don't do much fishing. We've thrown the line in a few times but only caught a few bream that are too small & we've thrown them back.

Tonight was nice; they put on a roast so we went over & had dinner with a heap of other people then went up the pub to watch the footy.

Tomorrow we head off again. It's time to head towards the east coast.