Cooktown to Brisbane inland

_________________________________________________________

18/8/12: We decided to head south again today- we've gone as far north as we can. We've done about 14000 kilometres so far since first leving Melbourne. So it was back to Mt Molloy free camp for the night. We had arranged to catch up with our new chums (Ken and Liz) there the next night. While we were there, another ‘homemade’ van arrived. From Switzerland no less. So we had a chat to the owners (Andrea and Christoph), and swapped van build stories. Their website is here.

_________________________________________________________

19/8/12: A day of not much today. The weather was bad; no sun for the panels, and we’re under trees anyway. We just spent the night at the site and saved a spot for the chums. The site was almost full. We had some drinks with our 4 new chums, and sat around having a bbq.  

________________________________________________________

20/8/12: We went for a drive today to the supermarket for more food. It was raining. We went as far as Port Douglas, and had a coffee there, and restocked the fridge. The drive put a bit of power into the batteries. In the evening we lit a fire and had another bbq.

_________________________________________________________

21/8/12: Today we left Mt Molloy and headed south to Mareeba, which is a small town in the hills. We are in the Atherton Tableland area, which is a large flatish top to the surrounding mountains. Bit like a table really. We didn’t get very far, and stopped at another freecamp at the Rocky Creek War Memorial. Not a bad spot – water and toilets. But busy. We set up camp and had an early night.

_________________________________________________________

22/8/12: Rain and more rain today. We stayed in the van most of the day reading our books and playing games. Still better than working! Hopefully the sun will be back soon.

_________________________________________________________

23/8/12: We went for a tour of the towns of the Tableland today. First stop was Atherton, which is quite large. Janine wanted to go to the Crystal Palace, which are supposed to be caves with all manner of crystals in them. Some can even heal your chakras. I was looking forward to sleeping through that. As it turns out, the ‘caves’ are a shop on the high street, with lots of paper mache rock formations. Poor Jano. She’ll have to heal another time. The other selling point of Atherton is Hasties Swamp. We pressed on. To Herberton, which is a quaint little place, but not a lot to see or do.

We followed the road north again to Yungaburra, and stopped on the way to see the Curtain Fig. Its a big tree with a fig growing over it. In the shape of a curtain. Then on to Yungaburra for lunch there and a look round. It’s a bit bigger than Herberton but still has the same feel. The sun started to break through too which was good. From Yungaburra we went back south, stopping to look at the windfarm on the way. The we did a loop to Ravenshoe, which is Queensland’s highest town. There is a freecamp area there. The town is one main street, with the shops and pubs, and the camp area is right on it at the railway museum. There’s water, toilets, and for a gold coin donation, hot showers. It’s a good set up, with most of the travellers spending their money in the local shops. 

_________________________________________________________

24/8/12: We decided to stay another night in Ravenshoe. Our phones don’t work but the internet does (different carrier),as does the TV. We will do all our washing at the launderette and stock up. The sun’s out so a relaxing day, with full batteries again.  

_________________________________________________________

25/8/12: We left Ravenshoe today in bright sunshine. We headed back to Babinda where we missed out on the canoeing on the way up. It was really a nice drive across more of the Tablelands and then back down towards the coast. We stopped for lunch at the Babinda site, and then drove 6 kms inland to the canoe hire place. It’s a really good set up. We hired a double kayak, and the idea is that you drift downstream for about 3 hours (ending up where we were camping), and then ring the owner and he comes and gets you and drives you back to the car. The owner was amazed that we weren’t taking the dogs in with us. So we did. It was ok, but certainly made things more challenging. Janine had to hold them both most of the way. Mainly to stop Sausage jumping out, and to do intermittent CPR on Clive who was a bit anxious. That left me to do all the paddling which was ok but a bit tiring after 3 hours. There were heaps of tree trunks just under the water which we kept hitting, and I wrenched my back trying to keep the kayak upright after hitting one in some ‘rapids’. That took 4 days to go away. But it was a really good afternoon. Great weather. The river was luke warm, and the scenery was spot on.

_________________________________________________________

26/8/12: After the night at Babinda, we drove back to Mission Beach, to the sky diving place we stayed before. We have decided to stay here for a while because we like it. Our new chums will all end up back here in the next week or so, so we will have a bit of a catch up with them. The weather has definitely changed. It is much warmer, especially at night (18C), and very humid. The clouds build up after lunch, and it gets pretty stormy in the afternoons. The conditions have also made tuning in the tv tricky. Because we can’t move the antenna, we have to move the van. It seems there is one square inch in the van park where we get good reception, but it changes each day. So we spent the first couple of days here driving around in circles trying to get it tuned in! Its ok now, unless it rains. Which it does most evenings. But its not a hassle, just a bit frustrating in a funny sort of way. 

_________________________________________________________

9/9/12: We're still at Mission Beach but will be moving on tomorrow. We want to go back inland a bit, so we'll head up to Ravenshoe in the hills again, and then keep going west for a bit to Normanton. Then its a big loop towards Brisbane to help out with some solar panels on Ken's van, before heading home for Christmas. Its been good here. Mainly nice weather, next no rain, and some of our chums (Ken & Liz) arrived so we've been socialising a bit. But it is time to head back; probably about 4000 kms home I'd guess. It'll fly by!

_________________________________________________________

10/9/12: Today we left Mission Beach. We stopped off at the supermarket and restocked our fridge, before heading back slightly north and inland to Ravenshoe. Its about a two hour drive, back up into the hills. We took the scenic route which was a bit slower but very pretty. Most of the last 30 kms was on a single lane track. It is much cooler here, and not at all humid. We rustled up a quick curry and watched a bit of X Factor (I know!). We had an early night, and got up bright and breezy the next day.

_________________________________________________________

11/9/12: We had a day of driving today. We have headed west, aiming for Normanton about 600 kms away. Lots of driving. The first part of the drive was still quite hilly with some good scenery. The road we are on is called the Savannah Way and it becomes clear why after a while. Lots of grasslands and spares trees. Some of the driving was interesting, with the road going down to single lane for mile after mile. It takes a bit of getting used to, as its only wide enough for one vehicle at a time. So its two wheels in the dust, two on the road, at 110 kmh to get past the road trains and other travellers doing the same coming the other way.

We stopped in Georgetown for fuel, and a couple of Magnums. Its much warmer inland. 32C today, but luckily not too humid – still pretty hot considering winter ended 2 weeks ago. The river at Georgetown is bone dry; I guess its very different in the wet season. We decided to stop tonight at another freecamp 20 kms west of Georgetown. Its at an old mine, and there’s a lake / oasis there full of birds. We were one of four vans, and we sat outside for ages waiting for it to cool down. It was a great place.

_________________________________________________________

12/9/12: We woke up early today (for us) and cooked breakfast. We were on the road by 9am, still heading west. We passed through Croydon, and kept going to Normanton. More of the single lane roads, and the land slowly got flatter and flatter. There were a huge number of eagles on the side of the road, feeding off the dead bits and bobs. Normanton is a small town. Not much there really. We wanted to go to the coast, so we drove on north to Karrumba (80 kms). This road was really flat. By now it was pretty hot (36C) so we didn’t get out much. Karrumba is basically a couple of pubs, a fishing industry, and caravan parks. We took a couple of photos and headed south back to Normanton. We refuelled again here. We like to keep at least half full if possible. The ‘BP’ consisted of a bloke who must have been in his eighties, in an old shed, with a BP sign nailed to it. It was $1.73 a litre, which is 25 cents more than everywhere else, but we are in the middle of nowhere. Once done, we drove about 100 kms south, and have parked up at another road side stop. Its so hot we can’t be bothered cooking tonight so its beer and cheese and biscuits. We couldn’t do this in the summer; it’d drive you mental. Heading further south tomorrow.

_________________________________________________________

13/9/12:We got up today and headed south towards Cloncurry. Probably a couple of hundred kilometres of monotonous driving. The land here is so flat and featureless. Its quite interesting to see, but it does wear thin after a few hours. This drive from Ravenshoe back around to Brisbane area is well over 2000 kms, and the vast majority of the drive so far has been on dead straight roads through not much. We stopped at Cloncurry and bought a bit of food, and refuelled again. We then drove another 300 kms to Winton. The scenery got so desolate that it became interesting again! Photos don’t do it justice. You can see to the horizon in every direction; just flat grass and sky. No hills. No tress. It feels like being in an empty snow dome. Our airconditioner started playing up again, not blowing properly as it did in Cairns before it seized completely. It is still 35C, and pretty unpleasant without it. So the van started to warm up a bit. It did feel like an adventure of sorts. In the middle of nowhere, no landmarks, hot and bothered etc etc. It was nice to pull into Winton. We stayed the night in a freecamp at a ‘lagoon’ with a few others. It was down a dirt road, which vibrated the airconditioner into working again. We had tea, and once it went dark, we had cold showers next to the van. It was still well over 30C so it was refreshing. 

_________________________________________________________

14/9/12: This morning we drove into Winton for a look see. It was a nice small town with old buildings. We found a tap for travellers to fill up with, so we did. There was a big drinking water sign on it, but it did smell off. Rotten eggs off, so we regretted doing it as we probably contaminated our tanks. We boil it first so should be ok. We left Winton and drove through Longreach to Baracaldine. On the main street of Baracaldine, which is about 500m long, we counted 7 pubs. There is also an old tree within a cool sculpture which was good. Something to do with the Union movement so I didn’t read on.

We turned south at Baracaldine and drove on to Blackall which was only a 100 kms away. As we drove through town we saw a few vans parked so we took a look. Blackall is another ‘RV friendly” town, and they charge $5 to park for the night, with water, toilets and hot showers. The whole area is on an artesian well, which supplies the town with constant 60C hot water. The lady at the tourist information place said the water is pure for drinking but contains sulphur which puts people off. No contaminated tanks after all! We spent the evening listening to my football team (AFL) win a close game with Freemantle. 

_________________________________________________________

15/9/12: The weather is much cooler today – in the mid to high 20’s which is much nicer. We left Blackall and continued south, aiming for Roma about 450 kms away. The scenery is slowly changing, with a few trees now and then, and some lumpy bits. The roads are still shocking, even when they’ve been repaired. Very bouncy and uneven. We drove into Augathella by lunchtime and we stopped there to eat and refuel. Its very small and everywhere except the petrol station was shut, even though it was Saturday. By the time we got to Mitchell, I was fed up of driving so we stopped. We found another freecamp next to a river and stayed there. So far this week we’ve spent $350 on diesel, so its freecamps for us. It was quite a nice spot. The temperature is much lower here and quite cold at night requiring jumpers. I worked out today that I haven’t worn socks for 2 months. Not bad for winter. 

_________________________________________________________

16/9/12: We had a leisurely breakfast today. We decided not to drive too far in a day from now on. The towns are closer together, and the drive is more interesting, so there are more reasons to slow down and stop. We drove for an hour into Roma, and did a bit of shopping. We cheated and went to Mcdonalds for lunch just to feel like we were back in civilisation, which is a bit sad. Tasted great though. Our phones started working again too, so we spoke to our chums who we are staying with shortly to fix up some solar. We’ll catch up with them tomorrow somewhere probably. We drove for a couple of hours and stopped for the night in a picnic area next to a river in Chinchilla. Only one other van here, so nice and quiet. Time for a rest. We have done lots of driving, and not much else. It has made us realise how isolated it will be next year going out west. Time to buy a satellite TV system I think, and change carriers on the mobiles.

17/9/12: Today we are meeting up with Ken and Liz in Kingaroy, and slowly heading to their house to work on their van for a few weeks. It was only about an hour to Kingaroy, and we stayed for the night in the showgrounds ($25). It was ok, but nothing special. It was good to catch up with the others, and plan the solar work on their van.

18/9/12: After leaving Kingaroy, we headed up into the Bunya mountains, which were really pretty. We stopped a couple of times to take photos and grab lunch. We got a bit lost, and found a nice freecamp by a river, but we weren’t sure where we were. We stayed for two nights to recharge the batteries after all the recent driving.

20/9/12: Today we headed to Buderim to Ken and Liz’s house. It was another nice drive, and Buderim is really good. Perched on top of the hill looking out over the coastline below. We will be here for a little while doing the solar panels on Ken’s van. Details of the van stuff is here. Once we get going again, we’ll start another page for our trip back to Melbourne which will be here.