Forrest Beach,to Carnavon Gorge

Forrest Beach is one of the main beaches that services Ingham which is a large sugar cane producing area, the largest sugar refinery in the southern hemisphere is at Victoria Mill halfway between Ingham and  Forrest beach.  The port facility at nearby Lucinda  has a conveyor stretching over 5km out to sea.

The Caravan park at Forrest beach was attached to a hotel, which was newly rebuilt after one of the cyclones that periodically hit the coast up here.  The park was packed and we had a small site, fortunately we had good neighbors and had a few fun nights.  The pub/park had a bit of "entertainment".  The famous  Whip crack kid and his flaming sisters had traveled all the way from north west NSW to perform here.  A little circus also came to the park.  It consisted of a 15 year old clown, a contortionist with a bad back and a juggler, together with with 2 goats and an. alpaca.  We didn't make it to the circus but some of the kids at the park enjoyed it.

cath on forrest beach

There are some nice people up here.  We had to have our car serviced in Ingham and had to get a Taxi the 25km back to Forrest Beach.  There is only 1 cab in Ingham and we had quite a wait.  It was a $50.00 fare.  The cabbie was a nice bloke and on the trip explained how hard it was to make a quid, then proceeded to tell us that he would take us back the next day free of charge.

I had no desire to stay in Townsville so we drove down for a bit of a look.  It has certainly improved since my last visit.  The boulevard area is terrific.

golf course at Bowen

Our next stop was at Bowen, midway between Townsville and Mackay.  We stayed at the Wangaratta caravan park right on the beach and abutting the golf course.  For the second time on this trip I regretted leaving the clubs at home.  The are some sensational beaches at Bowen.  We spent a bit of time at horseshoe bay a small bay with coral outcrops 20 meters from the beach.  Fantastic!  The manager of the park dropped a big bag of tomatoes , a few cobs of fresh corn and a pumpkin. As we were leaving I mentioned that next time I would bring my clubs and he said "you should have asked I have a couple of sets in the shed you could have used.  Alas too late.

cape hillsborough cabin (1987)

27 years ago on out trip to Cooktown we stopped at Cape Hillsborough National Park just north of Mackay.  We thought we would relive the memory and stop there again. his time we were in a caravan site, but it was directly above the cabin we stayed in 27 years ago.  It's still a great place.  the only down side was that we were hit by sandflies on the last 2 days.

After a quick visit to Mackay to catch up with friends Barry and Rosa we headed inland, away from any more sandfies.  We stopped  at Fairbairn Dam just outside Emerald.  I have heard a lot about the mining boom in central Queensland  but travelling through it really brings home how extensive the coal and gas mining is.

Large mines, roadworks, electric rail lines, white twin cab utes and villages of dongas litter the landscape. It really is huge.

cath on one of the 24 creek crossings

After a relaxing couple of days at Fairbairn dam (wish I had that Kayak), we headed to Carnavon gorge nation park, apparently the most popular national park in Queensland.  Unfortunately the NP campground only opens in school holidays so you are forced to stay in the commercial campground at extortionate rates.

The Gorge is quite spectacular.  We did the full gorge walk which ended up being 23 km and took us 7hrs 20min.  The most spectacular sections were Wards canyon, the amphitheater and moss garden.  All of these involved climbing steep steps and some vertical ladders. Suffice to say we had a couple of days not walking afterwards.

Tomorrow we move on southwards.


more photos

https://plus.google.com/photos/111502274836770337051/albums/5917051317390392961?banner=pwa

Weipa to Kurrimine Beach

The last 20 Km into Weipa was probably the most corrugated road that we have been on.  Apparently there is some dispute between council and Rio Tinto over maintenance.  Weipa is a mining town and has all the sporting and educational stuff.  However, it is isolated with great beaches and crocodiles (no swimming).  It's the first place we have been to where people were actually catching fish.

croc on lagoon bank

After a couple of days it was back over the corrugations to Musgrave roadhouse for an overnight stop and then on to Lakefield National Park where we had booked a couple of nights at Kalpower crossing.  Lakefield is full of swamps , lagoons, birds and crocodiles.  There are also the ruins of some cattle stations and out stations.  I was a bit disappointed that we had missed the red lilies in red lily lagoon, it would have been spectacular.

Donna Cave

We needed to go to Cairns at some stage to pick up our Solar panel.  Inquiries to jaycar indicated that the panel had not yet returned from Sydney.  They were going to chase it up so we decided to kill some time and head out to Chillagoe.  It's a small town with  a shop a Caravan Park and 2 pubs.  It also has the ruins of an old smelter and some great caves.  We did a guided  tour of Donna Cave, it was pretty spectacular.


Keeping with the underground theme we headed to Undarra where you can access some sections of the longest Lava tube system in the world.  Access is only by guided tour, so I had my normal misgivings.  We went to 3 sections of the tube and it was an interesting and scenic tour.

Information on the solar panels was getting a bit vague.  It seemed that they were lost.  Jaycar advised that they would give us a replacement.  We headed for the tablelands and the rain started.  We eventually found a campsite at Malanda and went into Cairns the next day to pick up the solar panel.  It turned out that our panel had been in the back of the shop for the past 5 weeks and had been sent nowhere.  Anyway we now have a new panel.

The tableands have beautiful, lakes, waterfalls and plenty of rain.  Malanda is supposed to be the best place to catch sight of Tree Kangaroos.  No sightings were made, perhaps they don't like rain.

"etty"

After a week of constant rain we thought we would try our luck on the coast.  We had been told by a couple from Innisvale that Etty bay was a great spot, so we headed there.  The rain continued for the 4 days that we spent there.  A pity as it has a nice little surf beach surrounded by rain forest.  It is also home to Cassowarys.  "Etty" a female is known to walk along the beach and through the park.  We saw her a couple of times and also another couple and some chicks on the road verge.

Pickers at work

The weather had to improves so we decided to move about 50K down the road to Kurrimine Beach, another beachfront park with the added bonus of an on site hotel (just in case the rain continued).  This park is right on the waters edge and about 400m off shore is king reef.  You can walk out to it at low tide.  Finally a couple of warm sunny days, although the forecast for the next week or so looks a bit grim.  The only upside of the rain  is that it isn't cold with temperatures around the mid 20's.  This area is the biggest banana producing area in Australia and Cath and I were invited to have a look at a small ,50 acre, Banana Plantation.  Its hard work 365 days a year and a good portion of the crop (anything with a blemish) is discarded and used as cattle feed.

We are going to slowly work our way down to Townsville, our next stop is Forrest Beach near Ingham.

Some more photos

https://plus.google.com/photos/111502274836770337051/albums/5903303813359750369

the gulf and cape York

replica of  Krys 8.6m croc shot at Normanton 1956

After leaving Lawn Hill we headed north to Burketown.  It's a small place, but it seemed even smaller as we arrived on the Sunday of the long weekend.  Apart from the Caravan park only a little fast food place was open.  The Pub burnt down last year and is still being rebuilt so no hotel and the servo and roadhouse were closed.  It was good to get going the next day (everything was still shut) and head to Normanton.  There is a bit of history in Normanton.  Just outside town was Burke and Wills last camp only a few miles from the Gulf  unfortunately they were unable to make it due to the swampy land.  At one time Normanton was to be the site of the major port in Northern Australia.  There are some very fancy buildings from this era still in use. These days Normanton plays second fiddle to the township of Karumba, a fishing spot on the gulf that attracts thousands of fishermen keen to catch barrumundi.

Palm Cove

Next stop was O'Brien's camp ground, a picturesque spot in the gem fields where we had an overnight stop and then headed to Palm Cove where we booked into the campground.  Palm Cove is very much a resort town situated between Cairns and Port Douglas.  Full of upmarket eateries and accommodation and with a beautiful beach area.  It was great spending a few days in civilization.

While in Lawn Hill our larger solar panel malfunctioned.  We dropped it off at cairns to have it fixed, under warranty just.  We don't expect to get this back until we return from Cape York.  It is going to leave us short of power for bush camping.

It was time to head for the Cape.  Our first stop was at Cape Tribulation Camp ground.  A great looking beach (with croc's).  It was well set out with plenty of room and was a great spot for families.  It also had a little bar with great wood fired oven pizza's. I couldn't say no. Next day we headed to Cooktown via the Bloomfield track.  It wasn't as bad as I expected, except for some real steep sections of dirt track.  The poor old Nissan chugged its way up these.  I think it would be pretty hairy in the wet.  There were a few car carcasses at the sides of the track.  The Bloomfield crossing was a bit of an anticlimax, only a few inches of water. All in all it was a nice drive through some great rain forest.

Lions Den Hotel

As we approached Cooktown we stopped at the Lions Den hotel for lunch, another of the legendary watering holes.  At Cooktown I discovered that the Andersen plug on the car was not delivering any power to the camper. So spent a couple of days finding an auto electrician to fix it.


We had decided to head up to the top as quick as possible, QLD school holidays were about to start and that was going to cause a few problems.  First stop was Archer River Roadhouse campgrounds.  It was a large camping area situated next to the archer river.  It was pretty full, a sign of things to come.  Next day we headed for Siesia Campground about 30 Km from the tip in aboriginal lands. You have to pay an $145 entry fee at  the Jardine river crossing, this included the short ferry trip each way. The roads up here have been better than I expected, plenty of dust some sticky mud, a few pot holes and sections of corrugation.

We based ourselves at Seisia for a few days.  It was a pleasant campground on a nice beach,  we were told that 2 croc\'s patrolled the beach and that a couple of nights before the smaller one had ventured into the campground.  I didn't see either of them, but I still didn't go for a swim.

Ruins of resort

The road to the tip from Seisia was probably the worst section of road that we had been on. A corrugated, potholed and poorly maintained road through dense rain forest.  It was great to reach the top of mainland Australia, it was pretty crowded up here with a couple of tour buses and plenty of cars.  Just before the tip there are extensive ruins of a 1980's resort  with the buildings gradually being reclaimed by the jungle.

Cath makes it to the tip

On our return we stopped at Punsand Bay on the west coast for lunch at the little bar/cafe at the campground there.  Then went over to Somerset on the east side.  Somerset was the original town on the peninsula established by Jardine in the 1860's.  There are a few Jardine monuments and ruins and some graves of pearl divers.  Another crowded car park.  The tour buses seem to be following me around very annoying.

There was a significant military presence here during WW2,  we went out and had a look at a couple of plane wrecks.  Along the track leading to the wrecks were old WW2 fuel dumps the rusty 44 gal drums still scattered around.

view of harbor from fort Thursday Island

You can't come up here without taking a trip out to Thursday Island.  We took the ferry out for a day trip.  The island is a lot smaller than  I expected,  It is a neat place with friendly people.  There is a large fort on top of the hill dating back to early this century (the Russian threat) and  the view of the island and of some of the other islands are great.

I had left the decision about travelling the Old telegraph track until our return journey.  After talking to travelers who had come up that way I decided to avoid it.  While the track itself would present no problems, some of the creek crossings would require a winch to get up the banks.  Like the Simpson desert the track needs to be done with the right recovery gear and preferably in a group.

State of Origin Bramwell Station

The plan had been to stay at a couple of spots in the national park on the way down, however they are all booked solid for the next couple of weeks so we head to Weipa.  On the way we stopped overnight at Bramwell Station.  The campsite here was packed.  It was state of origin night and the outdoor bar here had a TV.  There was a big crowd at the bar cheering for the maroons who won easily.

The weather has been great while we have been up here, about 30 during the day and OK at night.  We intend to prop at Weipa for a few days and then head back to Cooktown via Lakefield National park.


Some more photos

https://plus.google.com/photos/111502274836770337051/albums/5895427909164449057

Mt Isa and Lawn Hill

The landscape changed dramatically as we neared Mt Isa and moved from the arid grassy plains to a landscape of ancient weathered hills with those beautiful white gum trees that look so good against the red rock faces.  Mt Isa is the only real town of any size up in NW Queensland and it's not huge. It's a mining town and is right next to the mines.  The town is dominated by mine smokestacks.

Mary Kathleen was one of the original Uranium mines in Australia.  The town had a population of about 1000, which would have made it one of the largest communities in the area.  The mine operated intermittently between 1956 and the 1970's.  In the 80's the town was auctioned off.  We visited the site which is about 50km east of Mt Isa.  All the roads are still paved and the kerbing is largely intact. Slabs and foundations of the buildings are all still there and its easy to identify the town centre, parks etc.  It will be a good archaeological site in another 100 years.

We stocked up on provisions in Mt Isa as it is probably our last chance to get anything except basics until we get to Cairns.  Our next destination was Camooweal, a town of about 300, just east of the WA border.  We camped just out of town on the Camooweal billabong.  The water level was low, but there was still plenty of bird life.  I chucked a yabbie trap in and caught a few "red claw".  I do mean a few, not enough for a good feed.

200km of unsealed road north of Camooweal is Lawn Hill national Park (Boojamulla is the new name).  When we were over in the west last year all the Queenslander's told us that Lawn hill was the best park in Australia.  I don't know if it is the best but it is quite good.  There are some great scenic walks around the gorge that are not particularly challenging.  There are canoes for hire and we went 3km up the gorge to where the springs feed into lawn hill creek.  There were a couple of croc's (freshwater) basking in the sun and the water is full of fish .  The vegetation around the gorge is lush with pandanus, huge paperbarks and stands of palms.  The temperature here has been 30-32 degrees each day, so it has been great to have a swim in the cool spring waters of the gorge.  There are signs suggesting that you do annoy the croc's.

50km from our campsite is the Riversleigh fossil site. A lot of money had been spent building paths and facilities but there were only a couple of small fossils on display.   I felt that it was a bit disappointing, but I can understand that anything valuable left on display would probably be stolen if it was at all possible.

Next stop somewhere north.  I think our swimming days are over for a while, we are heading into Salt water Crocodile country.


More photos


https://plus.google.com/photos/111502274836770337051/albums/5886564190084529089#photos/111502274836770337051/albums/5886564190084529089


+

Innaminka, Birdsville. Bedourie and Boulia

gate to South Australia

After leaving Tibooburra we headed for the other end of the Sturt NP and stopped at the Fort Grey campground.  Fort Grey was another of Sturt's depots. It is situated on a fresh water lake that only fills when there are floods.  After filling it takes seven years to dry up.  because of the floods a couple of years ago it was still quite full with a prolific bird population.  Next morning it was only 40km to Camerons corner, where the borders of NSW, SA and QLD meet.  The dingo fence runs along the borders and you actually have to open the gate to get into SA.

I don't think I have ever seen kangaroos and emus in such numbers as I have in the Sturt NP, they were grazing on the roadsides till quite late in the day and a large number of them seemed intent on becoming road kill.

Coolibah under which Burke died

From Fort Grey it was about 300km to Innamincka, the bloke at Camerons corner store called the road the rollercoaster.  Its unmade road all the way over many regularly spaced dunes, the last 45km was particularly rough with close corrugations and dust.  We camped in the town common on the banks of Cooper creek. Cooper creek and Burke and Wills is what Innamincka is famous for.  In the hundred km's of Cooper creek around Innamincka the tragic end of the B&W expedition was played out.  We saw the lagoon bank where Wills was left to die alone, the coolibah tree under which Burke died.  The dig tree, where supplies were left and the lagoon where King was found living with an aboriginal tribe.  Away from the creek the land is very arid, there is not much wild life other than dingo's/wild dogs and feral cats.  This place must be fly capital of the world.  It was a great relief when the sun went down and they disappeared.

Cath coming out of Birdsville Hotel

The next town north is Birdsville about 400km away.  There are a number of ways of getting there from Innamincka, I chose to go via the Walkers Crossing 4WD  track across to the Birdsville track.  For most of it's length the Walkers crossing track was a single lane sand track, however at various places there were detours along well constructed gravel and clay truck roads.  The whole area is full of gas and petroleum mining, there are roads running everywhere, unfortunately none of them are on any maps or my GPS. It was a pretty slow journey and took nearly seven hours to get to Birdsville
.

Birdsville is the gateway to the Simpson Dessert and many of the people passing through were about to cross or had just crossed the desert.  Not for us this time, from all reports its pretty rough and needs to be done in a group.  We did go out to see the  "big red" dune.  I didn't attempt to drive it.  It was too late in the day for digging.  It rained while we were at Birdsville and consequently a number of roads were closed .

We continued north to the next town of Bedourie.  It's claim to fame is the invention of the Bedourie Camp ven, an Australian icon.  There is not much here, but we stayed for a couple of days.  The roads further north were closed due to the rain. The town has a population of 120 and boasts a fine 25mtr swimming pool and 16 person thermal spa (40 degrees).  Use of this facility is free.

Station Road entrance

The road is opened and it is off to Boulia, home of the Min Min light.  The journey is across gibber plains with little vegetation.  There are quite a few cattle on these plains, they seem healthy , but I have no idea what they eat.  Along the road the tracks leading to the various properties are decorated, a couple of hundred pairs of old shoes, a faux marble outdoor setting, and a house without walls.  Out here it is a bit of desert humor, transport them to a converted warehouse gallery in Fitzroy and they would be art.

 The Min Min light is a mysterious ball of light that hovers and moves quickly and  has been  seen by many people over the past 100 years.  Unfortunately we didn't witness this phenomenon.  Boulia is also home to a collection of marine fossils which have been found in the area.  Unfortunately we were also too early for the highlight of the year in Boulia, the Camel races.

Tomorrow northwards.

More photos on the following link
https://plus.google.com/photos/111502274836770337051/albums/5881793933753214721#photos/111502274836770337051/albums/5881793933753214721

On the Road Again

The plan was to get an early start beat the rush hour and get to Wyperfeld Nation park early in the afternoon. Fortunately we don't have a strict itinerary, because after hooking up the trailer on Sunday the day prior to our departure, I discovered that the trailer brakes were not working.  So instead of an early start it was an early visit to the auto electrician.  We did get away and still managed to arrive at Wyperfeld before dark.

sunset at Wyperfeld NP

I had never been to Wyperfeld before.  It is a large park in the Mallee and  has sandy soil and a range of vegetation.  It contains seasonal  lakes and swamps and abounds with bird life.  It would be worth spending a couple of weeks here and the surrounding parks.

Our next destination was Mungo National Park in NSW.  This was another long drive.  We stayed here for a couple of days.  We were here previously in March 2012 and the weather was hot.  It was much more pleasant in the cooler days of May.  Mungo contains some fantastic history, the site of mega fauna fossils  40,000 year old aboriginal remains and a rich pastoral history.  The size of the dry lake system is amazing.

Cath at Woolshed Kinchega NP

We traveled from Mungo to Menindee and camped in the Kinchega National Park  on the Darling river for a couple of nights.  Very relaxing.  Kinchega was a former sheep station and the old wool shed and some other old buildings are still standing.  This area was flooded in 2011 and parts of the park infrastructure are still being repaired.  At our camp site you could see the flood marks on the trees at about 2.5 meters.

 A couple of hundred Km's up the road is Broken Hill, the last city we will visit until we get to Mt Isa.  It is an interesting city with a rich history.  We visited the sculpture park set on a hilltop 25 Km out of town.  Th sculptures are pretty amazing as is the view.  We also visited the former bustling town of Silverton, now a few ruins and a pub.  At the museum in this town were extracts from newspapers of 1915 detailing the attack on the picnic train.  The train was travelling form Broken Hill to Silverton with 1200 passengers in open carriages when it was ambushed by 2 Turks in an ice cream cart bearing the Ottoman Flag .  The picnic was cancelled and all fares were refunded.  There was lots more to see in and around BH but I was keen to get back on the road again.

Feral Goats at Mutawintji

130 Km to the NE is Mutawintji National Park.  This park is a significant aboriginal site and the Historic precinct is accessible only with a guide.  We missed the tour the day we arrived but were lucky and joined an unscheduled tour a couple of days later.  The Historic precinct has some fantastic example of 10,000 year old etching.  Much better, bigger and more than we saw in the NT and WA last year.  The park also has some nice gorge walks.  there are numerous kangaroos, euros and emus.  There are also thousands of feral goats.  The eradication program doesn't seem to be working and they are doing a lot of damage.

It is about 300 Km down unsealed roads to Tibooburra which is on the edge of the Sturt National Park. It's probably the biggest town we will strike for a while with 2 pubs, a shop, a roadhouse and a police station.  One of the pubs "the family Hotel" is famous for Clifton Pugh murals on the bar wall.  We took a side trip back to to Milparinka a former prosperous town now a collection of 4 restored buildings and a boarded up pub.  Nearby is Depot Glen  the base of explorer Sturt for a number of months.  We also walked to the Sturt cairn, a stone cairn constructed by Sturts men on top of mount Poole.  The 360 degree views were terrific.

Tomorrow we move on.

Some more photos

https://plus.google.com/photos/111502274836770337051/albums/5877721937397932305#photos/111502274836770337051/albums/5877721937397932305