Late morning we went and picked up a canoe and paddled up Lawn Hill Gorge and had a little swim in the water there before canoeing back at speed (well, as speedy as we get) to avoid incurring a charge for an extra hour, getting back with mere seconds to spare.
In the afternoon we explored the Wild Dog Dreaming walk to see the aboriginal art hidden in the rocks. We had a much calmer night that night thankfully, so the next day there was no need for further repairs. We had decided to head to a free camp at Gregory Downs, which had been recommended by a quite a few people on our travels, and took the scenic route down an unpleasantly rough and corrugated track to see the Riversleigh section of the park, a reputedly amazing fossil site. As we were in the area, we thought we'd call in. We hadn't expected the rough ride, and rather stupidly, had expected to see fossils that actually looked like the creatures they came from.
Save to say we were a little disappointed to be told that this....
was a crocodile....
You see?
Nice little walk though, and some good views
We pushed onto Gregory Downs along my favourite type of road – a red one.
Seeing some real life jackeroos at work on route.
Then we saw a car broken down ahead of us and reluctantly stopped to see if they needed help, past experiences of trying to help not having worked out so well. We saw two men at first, and slowed down, then stopped happily when we saw a pregnant lady with them! Their ute had broken down, not entirely unexpectedly it seemed, and they wanted to cadge a lift into Gregory Downs to call for help. Instead we gave them a tow the 15kms into Gregory Downs, then set off to find our free camp for the night. Lots of people had told us that this spot was nice, and they were right. Its right next to the fast flowing Gregory River, very pretty, and free!
We bumped into Clare and Frank, a couple we'd met in Lawn Hill earlier in the week who also had an ARB rooftop tent, and pooled our food together to cook a lovely roast beef on the campfire, followed by Clare's extraordinarily naughty, but equally lovely treacle dumplings with cream – yum!
On Wednesday we bid our farewells to Clare and Frank and set off for Normanton via Burketown, some 350 kms away. We stopped off to see the sights, such as they were, in Burketown and Normanton. At Normanton the red road finished, and we were back onto tarmac, a relief tinged with sadness! We had thought of staying at Normanton, and stopped to get photos of the large croc monument there (this is the largest croc known to have been shot in Australia – meet Krys, he was 8.63 metres long!)
Normanton didn't have a good vibe, so we pushed onto Croydon another 155kms down the road. Arriving a little late and tired, we decided to head to the local pub for a beer and an all too average dinner. By the time we left the rain had started to fall heavily, and Jen found a little friend in the laundry room...it was love at first sight...
On Thursday we kept heading east, stopping in Georgetown for lunch where we met a random lady with her husband and baby, a large long-haired Afghan hound, really not the kind of dog you expect to find in Australia. Some bizarre conversations ensued, but we got a good recommendation for a camp-site at Mount Surprise called the Bedrock Caravan Park, a really lovely spot for us to clean up and feel less dusty after the long trip across the Top. Here we also helped the environment by partaking in a free under-body car wash... Its to stop the spread of seed weed, we're environmental warriors, ok?
After a lovely stop in Mount Surprise, we set off on Friday for the Undara Lava Tubes. We'd been debating whether or not we needed to spend the $46 entry fees to see these for some time, and decided we would stop. On reflection, I'm not sure we needed to bother, but perhaps we're just being a bit tight! It was interesting, if more for the concept than the actual sight of them. The Undara Tubes are the longest lava tubes in the world, formed when there was significant volcanic activity in the area around 190,000 years ago. To form the tubes, the lava had to flow at the right angle and speed through a natural depression. As the outer edge of the lava cooled, it solidified but the molten lava within it kept flowing, creating an underground labyrinth of huge tunnels. Lots of little bats live there now, and you have to pay a large fee to get in as the owner of the land managed to do a deal with the National Park to preserve the right to deliver tours himself – quite canny!
We also climbed up to the top of the Kalkani Crater, an “extinct” volcano, for some good views of the area and a bit of exercise! That night we camped at Archer River Rest Area, a free stop close to the Millstream Falls, which we visited the next morning on our way through to Ravenshoe. The Millstream Falls are Australia's widest falls.
We spent the rest of the day pottering around Ravenshoe, a cute little town at the beginning of the Atherton Tablelands, before exploring the tablelands themselves, visiting various waterfalls on the waterfall circuit around Millaa Millaa, and detouring briefly into the Misty Mountains. We spent about 2 hours driving around, constantly saying banal things to each other like “look how green it is!” “look at those beautiful rolling hills”! “look at the fat cows”! To be fair, we had come from this
to this
We headed back to Ravenshoe on Saturday afternoon to watch the AFL football final between St Kilda and Collingwood. It was a good game, ending in a draw, requiring a replay! Draws are very rare in a game with common scores of over 100 for each team, and it seemed no-one was prepared for this to occur in the final – its only the second time in the history of the game it has occurred in the Grand Final. Both teams left the pitch despondent, St Kilda with it all against them to pull out another performance to match the Collingwood favourites – sure enough, Collingwood won the replay the following week.
We camped the night at the local free campground next to the steam-train museum and awoke in the morning to explore the small market established next to us. We drove through the pretty Atherton Tablelands of Herberton, Atherton, Tolga and the not so pretty Mareeba, before making the steep climb up to Karunda, where we stopped for a bit more tourism at the various market stalls there. Then we headed down the steep steep slope to Cairns, and full civilisation. Well, a large population – their civility is a matter for individual opinion.
More of which next week,
Love Claire, of Jen and Claire Fame
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