Greetings from dry, dusty Coober Pedy, a town with one of the lower rainfalls in the world (though we did get a short shower 130km (80 miles) to the north last night. It is basically one big opencast opal mine with a million piles of dust dotted around that have been dug and filtered for the precious stones.
We are now racing south with only just over a week to go in the camper, heading for Adelaide then the south coast. Hopefully the weather will be good as we're not prepared for the fairly wintry weather the area can get.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Queensland... Cairns and Beyond
Tuesday 24th June – First priority is to drive into town to check out diving options and some research on the internet has suggested one of the companies has availability for a trip tomorrow. We successfully get booked up and locate the local Holden dealership (GM brand here) where we need to get the truck serviced before our long haul in the outback. We decide to drop the camper at a pull off on the Mulgrave River south of the city and use our bikes for the rest of the day, racking up about 60km as we investigate camping options and take a look at the seafront.
Tuesday night is also a hashing night in Cairns and we enjoy another relatively short run before following one of the hashers back to the northern suburbs where she's offered to store our camper while we are on the boat. The timing was perfect, they sold their caravan and it was picked up this afternoon! A couple of beers with our hosts and we head for bed in preparation for a very early start.
Wednesday 25th June – We have to be in town before 8am and catch the 6.30am bus which will get us in on time, luckily this drives right past our camping spot which saves hauling the gear anywhere. This dive trip involves a ride out to the reef (about 40km/ 25 miles) in a smallish boat with divers on a day trip, before boarding the liveaboard vessel. Overcast and windy weather has set in over the last few days which makes for a pretty rough trip... glad we are out on the sheltered reef for 2 more nights!
We get settled into our cabin quickly (small with bunk beds, but ensuite facilities) and head up for lunch (basic but tasty and filling) before being briefed on the schedule: a packed program of dives at 6.30, 8.30 and 11.30am and a night dive at 6.30pm... phew. There is a dive at 2.30pm for us new arrivals so we next get sorted with BCDs, tanks and regs (with a few equipment issues for Tracy before she gets a fully working set) and jump into the 25 deg C water (77F) for a look around. The water is a little cloudy with the rough weather (8-10m/ 25-35ft) but the coral is excellent, even in this well dived area. Conditions are warm enough even with fleeting sun, but the breeze is chilly when you first get out of the water.
The remaining afternoon is time for relaxation with our fellow passengers (mostly younger than us, this is the cheap and cheerful trip). The night dive is a lot of fun, we have not done one for 8 years and the site makes navigation easy. Most noticeable tonight are the Red Bass that follow us and hunt small fish that are shown up by our lights, now that is adaptation. Dinner is again of the solid and filling variety and we wash it down with copious cups of tea.
Thursday 26th June – Diving at dawn is a bit of a shock to the system, but it does give a good appetite for the excellent heavy duty breakfast. The rest of the morning is a whirl of getting in and out of equipment and the water and we also fit in an extra afternoon dive as we have to surface early on one dive due to an air leak. There is still time to relax and chat with other divers and again the night dive is the best fun.
One of the other passengers is a Belgian doctor who is working in a rural Aboriginal community in South Australia so he and Tracy are able to compare their experiences with medicine in Australasia.
Friday 27th June – Another busy day with diving and getting packed up before we board the boat for what is an even rougher journey back to shore. Overall the trip is a bit disappointing, good value for the price but with limited dive sites and with the dull conditions adversely affecting the experience. The company do offer free beer and pizza for anyone who want to come out to a bar in the evening though, and this offers the opportunity to chat some more to the other divers, and staff who are getting their time off.
We have a quick turnaround on shore, catch a bus north, shower, change and grab the bus south again for an evening that turns out to be a lot of fun, while the free beer does not last long the bar we are in becomes one of the hopping nightspots of the city and we party late into the night. Part way through the evening Tracy walks around the block to a hostel to find Kelly, her cousin's daughter who has just arrived in Cairns after spending two weeks doing environmental work on an island further south . The city has a good night bus service which we use to get home, with the convenient feature that the driver will drop you at any point on a regular bus route: in our case at the door of our camper.
Saturday 28th June – After the rigours of diving and partying in the last 3 days this is probably our laziest day yet, sleeping, eating, watching DVDs and catching up with picture editing occupy us until we finally leave the camper at 4pm for a chat with our hosts before we catch the bus back into town to meet up with Kelly. None of us have much energy so we relax over dinner in a pub and take a gentle stroll around the city centre, pausing at a few souvenir shops and watching a street performer and his impressive performing dog.
Sunday 29th June – Kelly has activities organized as part of her trip today so we take the chance to move our rig into the city, but not before harvesting a few coconuts and having a look at Kewarra Beach: one of a series of beaches stretching up the coast north of the city and each featuring a pleasant residential community. Once at our campground in the city we catch up with cleaning, laundry, picture editing, blogging and all the other chores of modern traveling life... plus processing coconut which is not easy with a limited set of tools!
Monday 30th June – Today we take the historic train that winds steeply through the mountains to the village of Karumba. The line was built in the 1890s to supply the inland mining communities reliably through the wet season, now it takes tourists up to see spectacular views of the coastal plain and two impressive waterfalls en route to a pleasant little tourist town.
The ride up is in pretty good weather with clear views and lots of photo opportunities, especially of Stoney Creek Falls and Barron Falls. Once at our destination we take a stroll down by the river before checking out the shopping in town. Tim takes off to do a longer walk and get some pictures in Barron Falls National Park while Tracy and Kelly continue shopping before grabbing some food and beers.
There are two trains down each afternoon and Tim gets the first so he can rush to the bank and pay for the next world Hash House Harriers event in Borneo (the price goes up steeply tomorrow), while the other two take the second. We all rendezvous in town and after delivering Kelly back to her accommodation we take off for the evening's hash run, which is pretty long and not at all well marked (that means we all spend time wandering around looking puzzled and searching for arrows on the ground).
Tuesday 1st July – Today the truck goes in to get a service in preparation for the trip inland and we plan to relax, though the much improved weather would suggest we should be more active. Tracy does look into a few of the pricier and classier reef trips and one leaving tonight has a good deal on so we book up the last couple of spots. Our plan is to leave our camper in the northern burbs again but the truck is not done in time so we just pay for 3 more nights and leave it at the campground.
By the time Tim has organized everything and delivered Tracy to the dive shop he is getting late, good thing he's been running regularly and manages to jog down to the shop just in time. There is plenty of relaxation time on the boat though, on this trip we board the main boat and we ride north overnight to the “Cod Hole” then spend the next 3 days riding south again visiting several dive sites on the way. Our accommodation on this boat is not en suite but otherwise the boat is better set up and the food a bit more classy... you get what you pay for!
The evening ride is smooth and time is spent getting our gear set up, having dive briefings and doing paperwork before relaxing and getting to know our fellow passengers.
Wednesday 2nd July – We awake north of Cooktown in great weather which promises much brighter diving. No 6am starts here, we breakfast first then get in the water about 8am. From the start the visibility is better than last week and we enjoy the dive. Highlight of the day is the second dive, where one of the dive masters feeds the huge (and friendly) Potato Cod that inhabit the Cod Hole. The hard coral here is also spectacular (not quite so much soft coral up here) and with options to go deep or shallow we enjoy long dives with much of the time spent in bright shallow water.
The night dive is not as exciting as last week but overall the dive sites today were better and the conditions much closer to ideal. We also enjoy the benefits of technology by being able to get online via satellite (expensive at A$11 for 10MB, but I saved $20 by picking up some on sale tickets for our flight from Melbourne to Sydney). Our fellow passengers include a teacher from Alaska who is very familiar with the arguments about dental care for kids in remote areas of the state that have been of great interest to Tim over the last few years.
Thursday 3rd July – Today's highlight is two dives at “Steve's Bommie”. A bommie is a coral encrusted lump and this one has beautiful coral, plentiful fish, a turtle and some sea life we'd not seen before. All the sites are good and the weather is fine again so we have a really good day.
We have about 4 hours steaming south in the evening and the swell has built up again so it is pretty rough, even in the bigger boat. Many of our fellow passengers are out of the game so Tracy spends the time chatting with the engineer while Tim finds a soft sofa and spends the time reading.
Friday 4th July – We get two dives today before we head for home, at a site near our previous trip. Despite the swell the visibility continues good and we really enjoy long shallow dives on great coral beds. A fellow diver also gets pictures of us so we can prove we're not just making all this up.
Back on shore we once again get together with the people on the boat in the evening and again have a lot of fun. There were 5 Japanese on the boat with limited English (they had a Japanese dive master to work with them) and they come out with us, I'm wearing a Nakamura Celtic shirt and as big football (soccer) fans they are most impressed. Later in the night we head for the same night club we met in after the last trip... everyone gets past the entry line with sweet talking by one of the crew (dive boats are good business obviously) but Tim is stuck outside having diverted to get cash. They will not let him in so we retire for the night rather than argue after we are caught trying a little subterfuge. A good 4th July!
Saturday 5th July – Another day to catch up with chores and laundry as we'll finally leave Cairns tomorrow.
Sunday 6th July – We are going to ride south and camp near the junction with the road inland to take in one last hash run (and see one more collection of sugar cane). First stop is town where we find an excellent market to begin stocking up with fresh fruit and veg for the long dry haul inland before we drive 30km and find one of the nicest campsites yet at Fishery Falls. You can tell the area has high rainfall with lush grass and beautiful tropical plantings.
The hash run is sparsely attended but the trail ends at the attractive Fishery Falls themselves and we all enjoy a fine afternoon's weather. The after run get together is carried out at our camper for want of a better venue, glad to be of service for once.
Monday 7th July – The long string of good days has come to an end and there is plenty of rain overnight. The morning dawns with low cloud but Tim still runs up to the falls for pictures (they look good with extra water) while Tracy preps for the long climb to Atherton. The Gillies highway is not as scenic as the ride down and we don't stop until we reach Joan's house, she is an old friend of Don's we met when she was traveling down south. Her home is perched on a hill among a growing number of new houses and has plenty of space for our camper and a lot of citus fruit trees.
We take a walk down the hill to look at the town in the afternoon, and avoid the temptation of the Atherton show. Then we help out by removing a rusting chimney cap so she can get a replacement and in the evening we cook for Joan and we enjoy the evening relaxing in a real house.
Tuesday 8th July – We get the bikes out today to explore more of the Tablelands, despite no improvement in the weather. We begin with a ride up the old volcano Joan's house is on, like most old volcanoes it is really only a lump on the plain but it does shelter an unusual scrap of rainforest in the old crater, protected from clearing for agriculture.
Our journey takes us down to Yungaburra, via a spectacular fig tree that I can't justify with a description so you'll have to look at the pictures. The village has a few historic buildings but on a dull and drizzly day we spend the most time at a winery/ distillery that produces some interesting drinks mostly from local fruit. On the way home we visit a cheese and chocolate factory where we watch the cows being milked and of course stock up with the produce.
When we get home we get a tour of the garden and collect samples of the huge range of citrus fruit Joan grows, and tonight Joan cooks and again we have a pleasant time discussing our travels as Joan has spent many years shuttling between homes in the north and south of the country.
Wednesday 9th July – Finally time to drive inland, and of course the weather is finally looking up here in the hills. We are not in the mood to hurry so we finally say goodbye to Joan after lunch, and we know Ravenshoe has all the services we need, so the day's drive is short and we slot ourselves back in our favourite site near the railway station. This gives us one more chance to chat to fellow travelers at the campfire and get an early night in preparation for the long drives ahead.
Thursday 10th July – The day dawns clear and we will not see another cloud for three days as we backtrack past Innot Hot Springs and set out on the Gulf Development Road, built in the 60s to allow cattle to be carried to the coast in road trains rather than driven overland on foot to railheads. First stop is the Undara Lava Tubes, the site of an unusual geological occurrence where a volcano 190,000 years ago spilled out lava on the correct incline that allowed the outer layer to set into tubes which kept the lava within molten till the eruption was over and the tubes emptied. These days some of the tubes are nearly full of silt and debris, others have partially collapsed while some are still unexplored.
We take a two hour tour that gives a good introduction to the terrain, the ecology, the history and shows us two of the tubes, then we take a walk in the bush around the area with a viewpoint overlooking the local volcanic outcrops and down to a swamp that is rarely as wet this time of year. Here we see an interesting range of birds and plenty of kangaroos out for an evening feed.
The sun is setting so we decide to ride for a couple more hours and camp at a roadside halt. The road is better than we expect with only a few stretches of single track with dirt shoulders and Tracy does a good job avoiding kangaroos which are a real threat at this time of night (we see more in this area than any other) and we find plenty of space to pull our camper up in a big area beside the wide dry Gilbert River. Our neighbours are riding bikes which can't be very exciting in the flat dry terrain we've passed through, but we never have the chance to ask them about their trip.
Friday 11th July – Today we drive on to Normanton, an old port on the Norman River near the Gulf of Carpentaria on the country's north coast. We check into a campground there, grab lunch and set off to Karumba, near the coast. The terrain here is absolutely flat and mostly grassland, part of the enormous Gulf Savanna region that stretches from the gulf far inland.
Karumba is pretty quiet but we find a couple of shops to buy up some stocks of the local fish and shrimp that constitute the area's economy before we drive onto Karumba Point at the mouth of the river which is a famous spot for watching the sunset. As I have mentioned before, Aussie's are very keen on sunsets over the sea because almost their whole population lives either on the east coast or inland and we find a large bar with fine view west which fills up quickly as the sun drops. Before the sunset we also get a show from the local grasshoppers which begin to fly in a swarm and the sunset itself is suitably spectacular. We chat for a while to a couple from Brisbane before driving the 70km home in time to jump in the hot tub that is fed by a natural hot spring.
Saturday 12th July – Tracy is up early to get on the road on her bicycle while Tim gets the camper ready for travel, takes a run, gets a last few pictures in Normanton, takes a final dip in the hot tub and heads south. Tracy makes it 50km before her pickup and we then continue for a while before finding a pulloff where we park in such a way that Tracy can get an outdoor shower without passing traffic seeing her (it is also a pretty quiet road). One old couple pull in beside us and are amused by seeing Tracy's showering feet, otherwise she gets successfully clean and we continue on our flat and boring way.
Today's destination is Mt Isa, a mining (copper, lead and zinc) city that has been in the news recently for the high lead levels found in its kids. As we get closer to the city the terrain finally becomes more interesting with several ranges of low rocky hills in various colours. We stop off close to Isa for a look at Mary Katherine, a town built in the 1950s to service a uranium mine and sold off in 1984 after the mine's closure. All that remains are streets, decorative features, non native plants, concrete slabs that once supported pre-fab houses and the foundations of several larger buildings like the company HQ and social club.
You certainly know it when you crest the ridge and start the descent into Isa, the mine on the ridge opposite dominates town. Originally a company town existed on that ridge with a collection of more poorly constructed private buildings crowded in to the valley. Then the mine expanded, taking over the ridge and what is now the city developed in the valley. Inexplicably we find all the campgrounds full and retreat to a rest stop 19km back east where we enjoy spending the evening with a collection of fellow campers.
Sunday 13th July – With it being Sunday parking for the camper is easy to find and we sign up for the main attraction around, a mine tour. They no longer allow you down the real mine for safety reasons so the city built a tourist mine with voluntary labour a few years ago (mostly from miners or ex-miners), stocked it with old equipment and employed retired miners to do the tour.
We occupy the morning with two associated museums, one of which details the development of local mining, the evolution of the city, the hardships and challenges for the early settlers and a little about the local aboriginal culture. The other focuses on fossil finds in one of the riches areas in the world for fossils of large animals, Riversleigh a few hundred km to the north.
The mine tour is actually very good as we learn about safety, machinery, the mining process, underground conditions and mine routine. But I think I will stick to weilding smaller drills above ground. In the late afternoon we set off for the Northern Territory border and finally find ourselves a place to camp in a rest stop in Camooweal, just in Queensland. After the brief intervention of varied scenery around Isa we are now in the Barkly Tableland, an endless stretch of flat grassy plain and low scrub at about 300m (1000ft).
Tuesday night is also a hashing night in Cairns and we enjoy another relatively short run before following one of the hashers back to the northern suburbs where she's offered to store our camper while we are on the boat. The timing was perfect, they sold their caravan and it was picked up this afternoon! A couple of beers with our hosts and we head for bed in preparation for a very early start.
Wednesday 25th June – We have to be in town before 8am and catch the 6.30am bus which will get us in on time, luckily this drives right past our camping spot which saves hauling the gear anywhere. This dive trip involves a ride out to the reef (about 40km/ 25 miles) in a smallish boat with divers on a day trip, before boarding the liveaboard vessel. Overcast and windy weather has set in over the last few days which makes for a pretty rough trip... glad we are out on the sheltered reef for 2 more nights!
We get settled into our cabin quickly (small with bunk beds, but ensuite facilities) and head up for lunch (basic but tasty and filling) before being briefed on the schedule: a packed program of dives at 6.30, 8.30 and 11.30am and a night dive at 6.30pm... phew. There is a dive at 2.30pm for us new arrivals so we next get sorted with BCDs, tanks and regs (with a few equipment issues for Tracy before she gets a fully working set) and jump into the 25 deg C water (77F) for a look around. The water is a little cloudy with the rough weather (8-10m/ 25-35ft) but the coral is excellent, even in this well dived area. Conditions are warm enough even with fleeting sun, but the breeze is chilly when you first get out of the water.
The remaining afternoon is time for relaxation with our fellow passengers (mostly younger than us, this is the cheap and cheerful trip). The night dive is a lot of fun, we have not done one for 8 years and the site makes navigation easy. Most noticeable tonight are the Red Bass that follow us and hunt small fish that are shown up by our lights, now that is adaptation. Dinner is again of the solid and filling variety and we wash it down with copious cups of tea.
Thursday 26th June – Diving at dawn is a bit of a shock to the system, but it does give a good appetite for the excellent heavy duty breakfast. The rest of the morning is a whirl of getting in and out of equipment and the water and we also fit in an extra afternoon dive as we have to surface early on one dive due to an air leak. There is still time to relax and chat with other divers and again the night dive is the best fun.
One of the other passengers is a Belgian doctor who is working in a rural Aboriginal community in South Australia so he and Tracy are able to compare their experiences with medicine in Australasia.
Friday 27th June – Another busy day with diving and getting packed up before we board the boat for what is an even rougher journey back to shore. Overall the trip is a bit disappointing, good value for the price but with limited dive sites and with the dull conditions adversely affecting the experience. The company do offer free beer and pizza for anyone who want to come out to a bar in the evening though, and this offers the opportunity to chat some more to the other divers, and staff who are getting their time off.
We have a quick turnaround on shore, catch a bus north, shower, change and grab the bus south again for an evening that turns out to be a lot of fun, while the free beer does not last long the bar we are in becomes one of the hopping nightspots of the city and we party late into the night. Part way through the evening Tracy walks around the block to a hostel to find Kelly, her cousin's daughter who has just arrived in Cairns after spending two weeks doing environmental work on an island further south . The city has a good night bus service which we use to get home, with the convenient feature that the driver will drop you at any point on a regular bus route: in our case at the door of our camper.
Saturday 28th June – After the rigours of diving and partying in the last 3 days this is probably our laziest day yet, sleeping, eating, watching DVDs and catching up with picture editing occupy us until we finally leave the camper at 4pm for a chat with our hosts before we catch the bus back into town to meet up with Kelly. None of us have much energy so we relax over dinner in a pub and take a gentle stroll around the city centre, pausing at a few souvenir shops and watching a street performer and his impressive performing dog.
Sunday 29th June – Kelly has activities organized as part of her trip today so we take the chance to move our rig into the city, but not before harvesting a few coconuts and having a look at Kewarra Beach: one of a series of beaches stretching up the coast north of the city and each featuring a pleasant residential community. Once at our campground in the city we catch up with cleaning, laundry, picture editing, blogging and all the other chores of modern traveling life... plus processing coconut which is not easy with a limited set of tools!
Monday 30th June – Today we take the historic train that winds steeply through the mountains to the village of Karumba. The line was built in the 1890s to supply the inland mining communities reliably through the wet season, now it takes tourists up to see spectacular views of the coastal plain and two impressive waterfalls en route to a pleasant little tourist town.
The ride up is in pretty good weather with clear views and lots of photo opportunities, especially of Stoney Creek Falls and Barron Falls. Once at our destination we take a stroll down by the river before checking out the shopping in town. Tim takes off to do a longer walk and get some pictures in Barron Falls National Park while Tracy and Kelly continue shopping before grabbing some food and beers.
There are two trains down each afternoon and Tim gets the first so he can rush to the bank and pay for the next world Hash House Harriers event in Borneo (the price goes up steeply tomorrow), while the other two take the second. We all rendezvous in town and after delivering Kelly back to her accommodation we take off for the evening's hash run, which is pretty long and not at all well marked (that means we all spend time wandering around looking puzzled and searching for arrows on the ground).
Tuesday 1st July – Today the truck goes in to get a service in preparation for the trip inland and we plan to relax, though the much improved weather would suggest we should be more active. Tracy does look into a few of the pricier and classier reef trips and one leaving tonight has a good deal on so we book up the last couple of spots. Our plan is to leave our camper in the northern burbs again but the truck is not done in time so we just pay for 3 more nights and leave it at the campground.
By the time Tim has organized everything and delivered Tracy to the dive shop he is getting late, good thing he's been running regularly and manages to jog down to the shop just in time. There is plenty of relaxation time on the boat though, on this trip we board the main boat and we ride north overnight to the “Cod Hole” then spend the next 3 days riding south again visiting several dive sites on the way. Our accommodation on this boat is not en suite but otherwise the boat is better set up and the food a bit more classy... you get what you pay for!
The evening ride is smooth and time is spent getting our gear set up, having dive briefings and doing paperwork before relaxing and getting to know our fellow passengers.
Wednesday 2nd July – We awake north of Cooktown in great weather which promises much brighter diving. No 6am starts here, we breakfast first then get in the water about 8am. From the start the visibility is better than last week and we enjoy the dive. Highlight of the day is the second dive, where one of the dive masters feeds the huge (and friendly) Potato Cod that inhabit the Cod Hole. The hard coral here is also spectacular (not quite so much soft coral up here) and with options to go deep or shallow we enjoy long dives with much of the time spent in bright shallow water.
The night dive is not as exciting as last week but overall the dive sites today were better and the conditions much closer to ideal. We also enjoy the benefits of technology by being able to get online via satellite (expensive at A$11 for 10MB, but I saved $20 by picking up some on sale tickets for our flight from Melbourne to Sydney). Our fellow passengers include a teacher from Alaska who is very familiar with the arguments about dental care for kids in remote areas of the state that have been of great interest to Tim over the last few years.
Thursday 3rd July – Today's highlight is two dives at “Steve's Bommie”. A bommie is a coral encrusted lump and this one has beautiful coral, plentiful fish, a turtle and some sea life we'd not seen before. All the sites are good and the weather is fine again so we have a really good day.
We have about 4 hours steaming south in the evening and the swell has built up again so it is pretty rough, even in the bigger boat. Many of our fellow passengers are out of the game so Tracy spends the time chatting with the engineer while Tim finds a soft sofa and spends the time reading.
Friday 4th July – We get two dives today before we head for home, at a site near our previous trip. Despite the swell the visibility continues good and we really enjoy long shallow dives on great coral beds. A fellow diver also gets pictures of us so we can prove we're not just making all this up.
Back on shore we once again get together with the people on the boat in the evening and again have a lot of fun. There were 5 Japanese on the boat with limited English (they had a Japanese dive master to work with them) and they come out with us, I'm wearing a Nakamura Celtic shirt and as big football (soccer) fans they are most impressed. Later in the night we head for the same night club we met in after the last trip... everyone gets past the entry line with sweet talking by one of the crew (dive boats are good business obviously) but Tim is stuck outside having diverted to get cash. They will not let him in so we retire for the night rather than argue after we are caught trying a little subterfuge. A good 4th July!
Saturday 5th July – Another day to catch up with chores and laundry as we'll finally leave Cairns tomorrow.
Sunday 6th July – We are going to ride south and camp near the junction with the road inland to take in one last hash run (and see one more collection of sugar cane). First stop is town where we find an excellent market to begin stocking up with fresh fruit and veg for the long dry haul inland before we drive 30km and find one of the nicest campsites yet at Fishery Falls. You can tell the area has high rainfall with lush grass and beautiful tropical plantings.
The hash run is sparsely attended but the trail ends at the attractive Fishery Falls themselves and we all enjoy a fine afternoon's weather. The after run get together is carried out at our camper for want of a better venue, glad to be of service for once.
Monday 7th July – The long string of good days has come to an end and there is plenty of rain overnight. The morning dawns with low cloud but Tim still runs up to the falls for pictures (they look good with extra water) while Tracy preps for the long climb to Atherton. The Gillies highway is not as scenic as the ride down and we don't stop until we reach Joan's house, she is an old friend of Don's we met when she was traveling down south. Her home is perched on a hill among a growing number of new houses and has plenty of space for our camper and a lot of citus fruit trees.
We take a walk down the hill to look at the town in the afternoon, and avoid the temptation of the Atherton show. Then we help out by removing a rusting chimney cap so she can get a replacement and in the evening we cook for Joan and we enjoy the evening relaxing in a real house.
Tuesday 8th July – We get the bikes out today to explore more of the Tablelands, despite no improvement in the weather. We begin with a ride up the old volcano Joan's house is on, like most old volcanoes it is really only a lump on the plain but it does shelter an unusual scrap of rainforest in the old crater, protected from clearing for agriculture.
Our journey takes us down to Yungaburra, via a spectacular fig tree that I can't justify with a description so you'll have to look at the pictures. The village has a few historic buildings but on a dull and drizzly day we spend the most time at a winery/ distillery that produces some interesting drinks mostly from local fruit. On the way home we visit a cheese and chocolate factory where we watch the cows being milked and of course stock up with the produce.
When we get home we get a tour of the garden and collect samples of the huge range of citrus fruit Joan grows, and tonight Joan cooks and again we have a pleasant time discussing our travels as Joan has spent many years shuttling between homes in the north and south of the country.
Wednesday 9th July – Finally time to drive inland, and of course the weather is finally looking up here in the hills. We are not in the mood to hurry so we finally say goodbye to Joan after lunch, and we know Ravenshoe has all the services we need, so the day's drive is short and we slot ourselves back in our favourite site near the railway station. This gives us one more chance to chat to fellow travelers at the campfire and get an early night in preparation for the long drives ahead.
Thursday 10th July – The day dawns clear and we will not see another cloud for three days as we backtrack past Innot Hot Springs and set out on the Gulf Development Road, built in the 60s to allow cattle to be carried to the coast in road trains rather than driven overland on foot to railheads. First stop is the Undara Lava Tubes, the site of an unusual geological occurrence where a volcano 190,000 years ago spilled out lava on the correct incline that allowed the outer layer to set into tubes which kept the lava within molten till the eruption was over and the tubes emptied. These days some of the tubes are nearly full of silt and debris, others have partially collapsed while some are still unexplored.
We take a two hour tour that gives a good introduction to the terrain, the ecology, the history and shows us two of the tubes, then we take a walk in the bush around the area with a viewpoint overlooking the local volcanic outcrops and down to a swamp that is rarely as wet this time of year. Here we see an interesting range of birds and plenty of kangaroos out for an evening feed.
The sun is setting so we decide to ride for a couple more hours and camp at a roadside halt. The road is better than we expect with only a few stretches of single track with dirt shoulders and Tracy does a good job avoiding kangaroos which are a real threat at this time of night (we see more in this area than any other) and we find plenty of space to pull our camper up in a big area beside the wide dry Gilbert River. Our neighbours are riding bikes which can't be very exciting in the flat dry terrain we've passed through, but we never have the chance to ask them about their trip.
Friday 11th July – Today we drive on to Normanton, an old port on the Norman River near the Gulf of Carpentaria on the country's north coast. We check into a campground there, grab lunch and set off to Karumba, near the coast. The terrain here is absolutely flat and mostly grassland, part of the enormous Gulf Savanna region that stretches from the gulf far inland.
Karumba is pretty quiet but we find a couple of shops to buy up some stocks of the local fish and shrimp that constitute the area's economy before we drive onto Karumba Point at the mouth of the river which is a famous spot for watching the sunset. As I have mentioned before, Aussie's are very keen on sunsets over the sea because almost their whole population lives either on the east coast or inland and we find a large bar with fine view west which fills up quickly as the sun drops. Before the sunset we also get a show from the local grasshoppers which begin to fly in a swarm and the sunset itself is suitably spectacular. We chat for a while to a couple from Brisbane before driving the 70km home in time to jump in the hot tub that is fed by a natural hot spring.
Saturday 12th July – Tracy is up early to get on the road on her bicycle while Tim gets the camper ready for travel, takes a run, gets a last few pictures in Normanton, takes a final dip in the hot tub and heads south. Tracy makes it 50km before her pickup and we then continue for a while before finding a pulloff where we park in such a way that Tracy can get an outdoor shower without passing traffic seeing her (it is also a pretty quiet road). One old couple pull in beside us and are amused by seeing Tracy's showering feet, otherwise she gets successfully clean and we continue on our flat and boring way.
Today's destination is Mt Isa, a mining (copper, lead and zinc) city that has been in the news recently for the high lead levels found in its kids. As we get closer to the city the terrain finally becomes more interesting with several ranges of low rocky hills in various colours. We stop off close to Isa for a look at Mary Katherine, a town built in the 1950s to service a uranium mine and sold off in 1984 after the mine's closure. All that remains are streets, decorative features, non native plants, concrete slabs that once supported pre-fab houses and the foundations of several larger buildings like the company HQ and social club.
You certainly know it when you crest the ridge and start the descent into Isa, the mine on the ridge opposite dominates town. Originally a company town existed on that ridge with a collection of more poorly constructed private buildings crowded in to the valley. Then the mine expanded, taking over the ridge and what is now the city developed in the valley. Inexplicably we find all the campgrounds full and retreat to a rest stop 19km back east where we enjoy spending the evening with a collection of fellow campers.
Sunday 13th July – With it being Sunday parking for the camper is easy to find and we sign up for the main attraction around, a mine tour. They no longer allow you down the real mine for safety reasons so the city built a tourist mine with voluntary labour a few years ago (mostly from miners or ex-miners), stocked it with old equipment and employed retired miners to do the tour.
We occupy the morning with two associated museums, one of which details the development of local mining, the evolution of the city, the hardships and challenges for the early settlers and a little about the local aboriginal culture. The other focuses on fossil finds in one of the riches areas in the world for fossils of large animals, Riversleigh a few hundred km to the north.
The mine tour is actually very good as we learn about safety, machinery, the mining process, underground conditions and mine routine. But I think I will stick to weilding smaller drills above ground. In the late afternoon we set off for the Northern Territory border and finally find ourselves a place to camp in a rest stop in Camooweal, just in Queensland. After the brief intervention of varied scenery around Isa we are now in the Barkly Tableland, an endless stretch of flat grassy plain and low scrub at about 300m (1000ft).
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Where Are We Now?
I have just updated Queensland pt 2 until our arrival in Cairns over 3 weeks ago, but that means we are half a continent behind. After leaving the coast we hauled pretty quickly (there is a whole lot of not much) and are now in Tennant Creek and heading towards Alice Springs shortly. Hope to post more updates in Alice and there are not many other sites to find internet access until we hit the south coast in 10 days or so.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Annoying Coins
The Australians use 50-20-10-5 dollar notes and 2-1-50c-10c-5c coins (with cash figures rounded to 5c). Although the 50c is pretty big (like an old UK 50p) the really troublesome one is the $2, worth US$2 or about a UK pound. The $1 here is similar in size and metal to a pound coin in the UK or the Susan B Anthony $ in the US, but the $2 (while made of the same metal and the same thickness) is much smaller, about the size of a 5p or dime. Just perfect for losing!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Satellite Technology is a Wonderful Thing!
I am writing this seated on a boat on the Great Barrier Reef. We are steaming south past Cooktown from a position at 14 39' 47.9" S; 145 39' 50.2" where we had some spectacular diving in perfect conditions (we were also out last week on a lower priced trip and the weather was rather more unsettled... though the diving was still good).
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