Mt Isa to.... Bundaberg!

Blog from the Mt Isa to Bundaberg
Leaving Mt Isa into the wilderness once more, we headed into the outback towards the Fossil road, where, as the name suggests, the road passes through an area of fossil rich base rocks. The entire area before the coastal hills used to be a massive inland sea apparently, sometime around the era of Gondwanaland. The lake is now ideal grazing land and as you dive through the grassland and savannah landscapes, it changes little from grass to light savannah and back again. The towns are all one road in and out, each with a butcher, a bottle shop, a police station and signs for an upcoming rodeo, which we kept missing sadly! The area was underwater for much of the flooding in January and February so as we found when we camp site *not intended as it cost something… in Julia Creek and stopped for the night. We were then warned about snakes galore, but all we managed to see were green frogs in toilets, and posters for the Dirt Festival which is a mix of Rodeo, mud snorkeling and various other fun stuff. Shame we missed it!
Driving on the next day our leisurely pace of 90-110kms drove us through the fairly damaged road alongside a railway track until we reached Richmond where we had to stop at the Kronosorous Korner the fossil museum. The kronosorous was quite the beast apparently and managed to eat pretty much everything else, but the fossils in the museums were from the juveniles which were less than half the size. I reckon that was hearsay and it just wasn’t as big as the Ozzies would have liked it to be J..
From there we headed east as one of two options to Hughenden where we pulled into a petrol station next to a road train. As I got out to fill up the van it occurred to me that they truck was a cow carrier and the cows on the second level were happily shitting all over our van, so before we were further decorated, we jumped into the van and headed to the next petrol station to wash off the offending muck and refuel. Having looked at the map we decided to drive up to Port Douglas without having to double up on our road coverage. The road north was from Hughenden via Porcupine gorge national park where there was camping. The road is termed developmental road on the map… and turned from a double road into a single track then dirt track. Occasionally it would turn back into a tarmac track and road and then back into dust. We had a great time, driving at around 90kms for the most part seemed to be the best speed for the road, and made it possible in sandier areas to drift nicely around corners without any coaxing of the van… rear wheel drive, what fun!
The Porcupine gorge was lovely and we had a nice little walk down to the river than had cut its way through some very beautiful landscapes and created a steep sided valley with sand and rock bottom- we should have gone for a swim really, but hadn’t taken our stuff with us. The walk up and down was only around 4km and enroute we saw nothing more than a few vicious looking spiders (which weren’t as we checked out later on- in Picasa they are the ones with red and white legs and narrow red and white bodies). The place is so off the beaten track that we had a 20 place campsite (free and provided by the state national park service) for ourselves until around 7pm when a Landcruiser joined us.
The next day we carried on up the road and enjoyed the dusty trail driving past a number of ranchers droving their cattle through the country side (yes on horseback and with the assistance of helicopters) until we were just south of Blackbraes national park. There, to our surprise, the road had been blocked as it was flooded! Driving cautiously past the sign we managed to get stuck in the very sandy conditions. Thankfully the signs for the road block are metal and roughly the same width as the average tires…
Thankfully a 4x4 rocked up and checked the road for us, he then attached a rope to our van and we followed through without a problem. Following us for the next 100km until we were in higher ground he then took off at some speed. His turning up was an utter stroke of luck for us as we only had enough fuel for the road ahead into The Lynd junction. We thought might be a small town, but only turned out to be a petrol station. On the road to the Lynd Junction we were passed by a number of huge trucks and heavy plant who were renovating the ruined roads, which were possibly the reason for a vast amount of dust that settled on Jen, myself and everything else in our Van. We looked great, with flaming red hair and a reddish looking tan that would easily pass for fake tan…. When we reached the Lynd Junction we took some time cleaning our stuff and ourselves – incidentally our first real shower in 36 hours or so.
The route onwards headed into the Table lands, and we passed through some of the breadbasket lands of Australia, in any direction there was coffee, tea, peanuts, avocadoes, potatoes, mangos and more growing in rich red soils where not; the landscape was covered in dense rainforest steep hills and extinct volcano remains, lakes and amazing waterfalls. We carried on up the hills on graduated roads climbing gently to around 1200 metres above sea level where we found a campsite on the location of a historic railway that was lovingly tended by the Ravenshoe community; apparently Australia’s highest town. Asked to donate a small fee of 3 dollars to the attendant, we found ourselves talking to an 80 year old German with a very strange accent. We would have loved to talk more to him and he was more than happy to speak to us about his experience in the second world war as Hitler youth and of where he lived, watching the v1 and V2 rockets being tested, moving through his life to his days mining in Australia and his experience across the country at various mines – it was late though and he intended to get up and get himself a dog the next day so we left him in peace!
We had a beautifully cool night, respite from the insects of Oz and headed to see the basin of the Tully River early. A quick walk around the top of the falls later and we headed onwards into the national park to a Dam where water sports and camping was allowed. The water was fresh and clear, we had to have a swim which was possibly better than any shower we’d had.
Back along another dusty trail we hit the road north east to the coast and after driving down some very steep roads hit the coast. The surrounding fields changed from lush rainforests and rolling hills to flat landscapes growing sugar canes and narrow gauge railway tracks. We headed straight to Port Douglas where we found a place to stay for the night across from the Marina and then headed into town. The town is tiny, serving a fairly well to do yachtie class who mix with people on the move heading north to see Cape Tribulation and the wilderness north of that. The mixture of nice restaurants and large bars, and yachts were somewhat conducive to staying another night, but only really using it as a base from which we took a day trip north to Cape Tribulation.
Cape Tribulation was a great drive, heading into the national park landscapes once more, back into the rainforest, it is a very accessible Rainforest to Ocean landscape, with white picture postcard sand covered by Jungle- and very dense jungle at that. Sadly we could not venture to Cook town on the coast road so gave that a miss and decided to go riding instead. Jen had really wanted to go riding along the beach there and we found a reasonable option for a 4 hour trek which took us through the jungle and onto the beach. (MT)
HORSERIDING – Cape Tribulation
Having spent most of my child and teenage years charging around the Norfolk countryside on a number of trusty steeds, I was very excited about getting on a horse for the first time in 9 years (if you do not count a mule in Morocco). I was given River, a 16’2 ex-racehorse thoroughbred and Mark was given the ‘Hangover horse’ i.e. a nice comfortable and easy ride. It was fantastic riding through the rainforest and then down to the beach, passing a tributary on the way where our guide informed us a crocodile had been sitting on the bank the day before. It was just Mark and I so we had more riding time, which was good. The highlight as always with horses was going fast, i.e. the canter on the beach. We were told the horses preferred the formation of guide, me, Mark as mine tended to go into racehorse mode if at the back. Only a few seconds into the canter, and saw Mark’s horse’s nose by my foot, past me, and off it went into the lead with Mark adopting a brilliantly comedy pose and legs flapping either side – it seemed that the hangover horse had the hair of the dog! Although you should never laugh at beginners who are giving something a try, I have an evil streak that finds people on out of control horses hilarious!!
The guide could not believe this behaviour from a normally gentle horse and nor could I until Mark confided in me that he had grabbed the reins and slapped the beast’s neck hard on either side a few times like they did in cowboy films to make the thing move – hehe! Brilliant. We went for a dip in the billabong to cool off afterwards so all in all a perfect day.
We drove back to Port Douglas to find a gypsy spot to sleep, then on to Cairns the next day. One quick thing – we were cooking dinner at a view point in the dark – quite randomly had bought a joint of beef as it was super cheap and I was chopping it up with a little knife into pieces, so my hands were covered in blood. People kept coming up in their cars, obviously for a bit of Friday night romance at the view point and took one look at me and turned straight back round without even getting out of their cars – this happened 3 times – goodness knows what they thought was going on... It was lucky that they did not see me about 20 mins later when on opening the back door, a huge hairy black hand sized spider fell onto my thigh making me scream so loudly and it gave me the shakes for about 30mins. I think I had even said to Mark earlier that day about how used I had become to spiders here!! Right! I draw the line at skin contact but anything else is fine – wall, floor, etc, etc. Urghh.
Cairns has a reputation for being a city solely driven by tourism, which is true to a certain extent, however, it has a very local feel as well. The public amenities are amazing – a huge sea front with an great free public swimming pool, kids areas, picnic and BBQ facilities, etc – all very immaculate and outdoor-friendly. We met up with the other boys, and had a very fun night at the Woolshed which involved a lot of beer. It was great to hear their stories and adventures! The next day Mark and I went diving on the Great Barrier Reef, which did not disappoint. Totally different to Borneo – more dramatic with big underwater cliff drops and amazing visibility – around 30m. Highlights were seeing the first shark and for me, an Eagle Ray which gracefully floated off into the deep blue.
Next stop – Townsville. Again, a great promenade with free swimming pools and BBQ areas. Very quiet town and just stopped over night. Next day, pushed onwards down the coast, which is a beautiful drive. We stopped at Alva Beach, which reminded me of Holkham Beach in Norfolk – wild, rugged and empty, so in my view, absolutely beautiful. Mark and I decided to camp next to the beach as it was so gorgeous. The moon was so bright so we went for a walk after supper and saw some folks out for the traditional ‘Good Friday’ night fishing trip. They were super friendly and shared some of their beer with us/offered us some of their catch. It was interesting watching them wading into the water with their nets up to their necks in the dark – they were joking that one of them was on shark watch, although I am not sure how much he was joking!
The next day we stopped in Bowen for lunch and it had some beautiful beaches – Mark and I spent some fun time clambering over the rocks. We arrived in Airlie Beach that evening all ready for our Whitsunday trip the next day. JG
Whitsunday sailing (10th Apr)
After drooling over some beautiful sailing boats in the Marina, we boarded an equally gorgeous one called Siska, which has won some races in its time. About 80ft and sleeps 22 (a racing crew) it’s designed for speed. The boat was full with some interesting characters from 18 year backpackers to a couple in their 50s. We spent the day cruising around the gorgeous islands and stopping at Whitehaven beach, where the sand is so fine it squeaks as you walk on it. I have been sailing in the Whitsundays before and the weather was spectacular – blazing sunshine. This time we had rain, wind and sun, but it actually made the sailing so much more fun, so it was a good thing! We all got to help sail too, which was fun and on the last day, we raced another similar yacht back to the harbour which got a great bit of competition going and the boat at a 45 degree angle. In the evening, we all drank ‘goon’ very cheap Australian wine and Mark and I proved that we could still have as much fun as the 18 year olds – hehe! JG
Town of 1770/Agnes Water (13th Apr)
This is a tiny friendly place where the big attraction is the beach and the ‘scooteroo tour.’ Unfortunately the latter was a little out of budget; however, we managed to get the cheapest surfing lessons in Australia – only 22 bucks for 2.5 hours and all equipment. That was this morning and it was amazing fun! Managed to catch a few waves to the beach in between the face plants in the water and now I just want to go back in the water and do it all over again. Lucky we are heading towards the Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise…JG
Bundaberg (15th Apr)
Just arrived here and heading for a tour of the rum distillery in the morning. May sample a few of the local tipples tonight too… JG

Darwin to Mt Isa (24th– 29th Mar)

 

Lots to read so Jen and I have written a little bit each- enjoy the read!

 

Arriving in Darwin at four forty five am was great fun. We landed and were greeted by not only heat, but also an ostensibly very pro-active border guard whose dog found an Apple in some of our luggage… and what fun we had thereafter. Words of advice: ignore advice from a fellow traveler who said "only idiots tick yes in any of the boxes"; fill in the boxes even if you have an apple on you, and don't forget the bags of tea you might have either! We weren't the only ones whose luggage was searched though and who were cleaning the soles of their shoes, half asleep and not quite with it. Sensible really, Oz has a very fragile eco system that they are doing a great job in destroying themselves, why help out?

Taking the "free bus" into Darwin (signs say free but the small print says only if you booked a hostel in advance), we entered a town that I had somehow imagined somewhat different. A combination of a hub for raw materials, military (largest bases in Oz apparently), mining, tours into the outback and their national parks – tourism, it is definitely on my oddest town list. There is one main road that buses and other heavy traffic aren't allowed on which is nice, but it does make way for the tuned low riding cars or high riding pick-ups and men in wife beaters are first elements of Darwin you cannot miss. Opposed to that are their very scantily clad women who seem to really take pride in their appearance… it's pretty funny contrast but it does make you wonder. The third variety of person is the Aborigionals who sadly all seem to be alcoholics and street urchins, throughout the Northern Territories they get treated like children which I am sure doesn't do much to help them out - no booze buying between X and Y o clock, no booze or pornography on their lands – take us back to the Victorian ages why don't you! The last thing about Darwin is that it's very, very hot.

Whilst in Darwin we found ourselves cruising through the weekend till we could pick up our camper; we mooched mainly, it was too hot to move, sweating sitting down in the shade with the Thermometer in the sun at over 50 Celsius and at 40 Celsius in the shade, we did somehow manage to book a bus trip. We missed the first day – oversleeping and wrong time- and took it the next day. Nobody told us it was a Saga tours bus. The tour was very funny, and was half price- the bus driver was I think also the owner of the bus and the tour guide, giving us very useful information about land values, business changes, new plans for building and regulations while driving us around – eventually to Litchfield National park where we looked at some pretty amazing waterfalls, had a swim in a croc free zone and then headed back to town. No shopping in Aboriginal villages though. Next day was Wicked Van pick up day J yeah! MT

 

We picked up the camper van in Darwin which was hilarious – there's nowhere to hide with this one – bright purple, pink and blue with "Getting married is one mistake every man should make" graffitied on the back. It also came complete with pink fluffy handcuffs hanging from the rear view mirror (makes a change to spotty di I suppose) and the security sticker:

"Attention arsehole: 8^th Commandment: Thou shalt not steal. God is watching you, you thieving bastard." Nice touch.

I drove first and condemned myself to ½ hour of teasing for not getting the thing out of gear before turning the on the ignition. The old geezer who was showing us the van simply said "yeah that's a normal thing for a Sheila to do – they normally think there's something wrong with the engine as it keeps lurching forward." I just smiled through gritted teeth while Mark was sniggering in the background. The van is pretty cosy but fine for a couple – a small kitchen unit at the back which you access by opening the boot and then a double bed in the back – you cannot really sit upright in the van as it's just a wee one, but you spend most of the time outside anyhow on the garden furniture so it's fine for sleeping.

First stop: Adelaide River. Mark and I had won vouchers for a free crocodile tour as we both volunteered to hold a big water python in a bar one night. The guy who owned the boat was a real character – aside from just doing the croc trips, he toured the country with his interesting collection of snakes and lizards doing life coaching talks to global corporates. He also worked with a lot of film and TV companies taking them out onto the river to see the crocs, such as the National Geographic. Apparently his boat was used to film "Rogue" a cheesy scary croc movie, which I found very exciting because I am a gimp. He also has porn stars and strippers flying up to the Northern Territory to have professional photos taken with his snakes draped around them – I imagine that his friends hate him. Luckily Mark and I had the boat to ourselves where normally there may be up to 50 people on the trip. Apparently this is the sort of treatment that celebrities get at a 1000$ a pop. The Adelaide River has the largest and most dangerous Saltwater Crocodiles in the world. It is also the only place that they can jump and will do so to get a snake out of a tree or attack a swooping bird. I did not entirely believe this until seeing it - watching 3 metres of crocodile leap out of the water so quickly and ferociously just highlights how deadly they are. The fact that the water is also so calm and peaceful beforehand makes it slightly eerie and makes you jump no matter how prepared you are! Well, as Mark and I were celebrities on the boat, we were allowed to have a go at feeding the crocs. You hold a bamboo cane with a piece of string and a big lump of bloody meat at the end and literally go croc fishing. It's great fun, but also a little scary and you make sure you do not stand too close to the edge. We were very lucky and saw a 6m crocodile which was longer than our boat and who was over 100 years old. Apparently he has cost Craig quite a bit of money in the past as he has eaten through two moving boat propellers. We also pulled the boat up on the swampy banks while Craig poked around with another 4m croc just 1 m from us – he just said not to turn our back on it, which is all very well, however I was not sure what the next step was! Despite having small brains, crocodiles have strong survival and hunting instincts and can remember the habits of their prey. They can stalk something for up to 6 months to ensure that when they attack, it will be 100% successful. For this reason, it's important to do things slightly differently if you are camping somewhere for a period of time with crocs, i.e. collect water at different times of day, etc. I believe it was good for Mark and I to come on this cruise prior to our camping adventure as it really highlighted how dangerous 'risking' a swim in a cool looking billabong or river could be. On the way back we fed the kites pieces of lamb, who swooped in and caught the meat in mid air – apparently they can see their prey from 40km away! (very hard to get a good photo of them though L mt)

We continued to Kakadu National Park which is just beautiful – sub-tropical meets savannah outback style terrain. We had planned to stay at a free campsite/rest area, however many of them were closed due to flooding so we had to end up paying for a campsite called Cooinda, which did have a pool. As it was our first night in the van we decided to treat ourselves to a bottle of red wine (the first since Christmas) and kangaroo steaks which we BBQ'd – delicious. Like Darwin the place was so hot – you only needed to sit outside for a few minutes and you were sweating like crazy and there were ridiculous amounts of bugs ranging from huge cicadas to grasshoppers and mozzies, which made it quite hard to be outside for any period of time – although there were some entertaining frogs who just sat in a line putting out their tongues every time a tasty morsel came floating along. The first night we thought we would die from the heat – with only a small net window and the fact that the temperature was much hotter in the van it was like sleeping in a sweaty sauna and virtually impossible to get any sleep. The next morning it was straight into the pool! There were some kangaroos and a dingo wandering around the campsite in the morning which was quite exciting.

We managed to find the other boys who had picked up their van later than us and went to see some Aboriginal art on one of the rock faces which was very beautiful and later a cultural centre which was well laid out and free. The others seemed to disappear and after looking for them at a few spots we decided to camp at the bottom of Kakadu in a place called Kambolgie. This involved a 13km trip down a 4WD track (yes we do only have a 2WD van which made it all the more fun). Mark and I had a brilliant time bumping around, practicing hand break turns and seeing how fast we could go where the back of the van did not spin round too much – I hope the people from Wicked never read this, haha! The camping spot was literally a clearing in the bush with a fire pit and a little Billabong with a croc sign in front of it. We were the only ones there and knew that we were totally in the middle of nowhere which was exciting. The first thing we did was to make a fire (one of my favourite pastimes) and then we shoved some baked pots in the fire and cooked some kangaroo burgers with the mince we had bought – great stuff, 98% fat free, full of iron, is cheaper than beef and tastes great! The setting was absolutely stunning, and when the stars came out you could really tell that you were in the Outback as they were overwhelmingly numerous and clear. There were hardly any bugs and it was much cooler at night, so we were both a little relieved that we were not going to be cooked every night for 5 weeks!

The next morning we drove another 13km into the wilderness as the track continued and found some walks around a place called Yurmikmik where we pottered along beautiful sub tropical paths to a waterfall. There were lots of spiders around and we saw two snakes, one big one on the track and another on the rock near me which was exciting. Lunch was at Edith Falls which were beautiful but unfortunately we could not swim there due to the crocs still being around. We continued to Katherine and failing to find a free campsite, parked on a track just off the road. Mark and I sat on the roof of the van drinking wine and taking pictures of the cockatoos and sunset, which was cool.

Next morning (we generally wake up around 6.30am in the van as it starts to heat up, although we go to bed at around 9-10pm so it's fine) we climbed up to the view point at St. Katherine's Gorge, which is beautiful and went for a little walk around there. Unfortunately there was no canoeing due to the crocs again! We drove further down to Mataranka where we watched some Barramudi fish being hand fed. They are pretty cool fish, and their eating action is so fast and makes a real chomp noise. We also saw our biggest spider yet – not sure what is what but was tarantula sized and climbing up the wall of the ladies loo, so I made an executive decision to go to the mens. Although by the time Mark had found his camera and taken a photo, it had whizzed over to the mens, so he made the decision to use the Ladies loo, ha! We nearly had an extra passenger in the form of a chicken who decided it would be fun to jump into our van and have a peck around. We continued down the road to Bitter Springs, which is a gorgeous little thermal turquoise pool right in the middle of some swamps – being hotter than outside, it was actually refreshing coming out of them.

The driving continued – it's pretty amazing landscape and the roads are so long and straight. You literally have to fill up with fuel at every station otherwise you will run out which would be seriously bad news. You see a lot of birds of prey and roadkill, i.e. buffalo and kangeroos. There is the occasional big snake and lizard crossing the road, as well as a lucky sighting of an Emu plus baby. The roadkill is the reason we are not allowed to drive at night. Hitting a buffalo or Kangeroo would be hugely dangerous, however this is not a problem for the awesome 'road trains' which look like something out of a cartoon and have sometimes 3 or 4 carriages at the back making them over 50m long. They all have buffers so anything that goes in front of them has no chance! We stopped at an awesome pub in Daly Water which was full of unusual memorabilia. We also passed a lot of WWII airfields/hospitals, etc which were interesting. That night was camping in a layby on the side of the road. I am loving being outdoors so much, eating, cooking, washing, peeing – it's great! JG

Driving through the changing landscapes of Eastern Australia… its utterly beautiful coming out of the usually very arid, but currently very lush central plains into the area around Mt Isa. Not much of interest here; similar to those in sunny UK. The climb into the mountains was pleasant as the hills made for gently twisting roads and beautiful views. Arriving in Mt Isa, incidentally, the largest City in the world, the area covered by its mandate is larger than Switzerland, you get to see MASSIVE industrial activity all linked to it being a fairly rough and tumble mining town. Plenty of mines, plenty of minerals to be extracted, however, unlike the rest of the towns we had driven through, this one has more than one road, a butchers, two "bottleshops" and lots of dust. So we did a little shopping for fresh food and took it easy till we found our free campsite. The accommodation didn't remain free as during a move away from the road, LOTS of icy water was spilt and soaked our mattresses.. and then we were attacked by bugs of seemingly every variety, leading to our snap decision to find a motel. So Mt Isa became our most expensive night but very restful… more to come about the rest of the trip soon! Picassa will be updated soon too! (MT)