7. Cairns Q – Moree NSW

Australia is such an amazing country and we are blessed living here.  We encourage everyone to take the time (& make the effort) to check out the many treasures available free.  Here are some quick pix FYI:

PARONELLA PARK, MENA CREEK Q.

This place was a must re-visit on our itinerary and did not disappoint.  We stayed overnight here and did both Day & Night Tours once again.  The enthusiastic owners continue to present Hose Paronella’s dream castle, home and gardens in a fascinating way.  This pic is the tea house and fountain which overlooked tennis courts.

Paronella Park is also a popular spot for wedding photos.  Naturally, the bride looked beautiful & the groom scrubbed up OK as well.

The gravity-fed fountains were spectacular at night.  Hose’s hydro-electric generator has been upgraded and the park now runs on its own power as well as feeding electricity back into the grid.

TOWNSVILLE Q

The imposing Castle Hill can be seen from just about everywhere in Townsville, including from the Botanic Gardens where this pic was taken.

BOWEN Q

Horseshoe Bay is beautiful & we were glad we managed to squeeze into the last available spot in the crowded caravan park (most residents seemed to be Victorians migrating north for the winter).  Spen snorkeled with many fish here at Horseshoe Bay Beach.

Recognise this wharf?  It’s where the Far Away Downs cattle were loaded in the film Australia.  The film crew “took over” Bowen for 3 months or so for filming and trucked heaps of red dirt into a large cleared area near the wharf.  They trucked it all away once filming was done as well.

CAPELLA Q

This memorial to the Australia Light Horse Troops at Capella (just north of Charters Towers) was very well done

RUBYVALE Q

Rhonda enjoyed hunting for Sapphires and even managed to find a few specimens. This pic shows her hard at work operation in Rubyvale.

LONGREACH Q

We took a detour back to Longreach to share a few more delightful days with Scott & Belinda and help Scott with some car & house chores.  We also picked up Toby who was ‘doing it tough’ as you can see in this pic.

MORVEN Q

We came across this kerosene-tin house in Morven Q.  Apparently they were pretty common during the big depression and were made from flattened kero tins over saplings.   We are sure blessed to live at this time and in this country!

MITCHELL Q

How’s this for a tranquil scene.  It’s the Maranoa River at Mitchell Q.  We enjoyed a great night’s sleep at the caravan park beside this river.

Lord willing, we will head towards Coffs Harbour in the next few days and then ease our way down the coast towards home.  Still many people to see and places to go so, until the next update, be kind to yourselves and to others and God Bless.

Spencer & Rhonda

6. Cairns – Cape York Q

Our inability to buy a new spare tyre due to rubber shortage (pesky 18” rims) meant that we took a tour instead of driving ourselves.  Turned out to be a great decision and an amazing experience!  We can thoroughly recommend Heritage 4WD Tours, especially their 7-Day Cape York Fly/Drive Budget Accommodated Safari.  Very handy travelling with a local who knows the tracks, extra places to see, who can cook really well and is using his vehicle on those roads.

Woohoo!  We made it to the most northern tip of mainland Australia.  Major highlight and another item ticked off the Bucket List.

$88 for the short ferry trip across the Jardine River is mandatory – because there is no other way to go north to “The Tip”.

Fruit Bat Falls was another major highlight.  What a pristine and beautiful place.

Swimming here was awesome and going through the falls most excellent.

One of the smoother sections of the Old Telegraph Track.

The “gentle” approach to the Cockatoo Creek crossing.

Spen boarding up for the Cockatoo Creek Crossing – pretty deep & fast flowing.  The bus had no probs crossing this one as well.

So many beautiful sights – this one is the Wenlock River.

Sunset over the water and beach at Weipa.

The Archer River was also very photogenic.

Spen at the Lion’s Den Hotel near Cooktown – great old pub, live band and a 1.5m black-headed python which was allowed to slither across the arms & shoulders of 'volunteers' . . . . but not this little black duck! 

This is the new 4WD bus which took us home from the Cape in air-conditioned luxury.  It’s on Grassy Hill Lookout at Cooktown – great views.

We’re wending our way home slowly (via Longreach to pick up Toby) and will post a few more pix along the way. 

Best wishes and stay safe until next time.

Spencer & Rhonda

5. Charters Towers Q – The Lynd – Lava Tubes - Innot Hot Springs – Mareeba – Cairns Q

We left Charters Towers and headed north along the

Gregory Development Road

– beware of any road which includes the word “Development” in its name!!  It’s also known as a beef road and this means that there is often just one very narrow lane of tar (sometimes with very crumbled edges) and dirt verges.  The idea is that you pull right off the road when you see a Road Train in the windscreen or rear view mirror.  Some Road Trains have 4 trailers – they are huge.  Stone chips or worse can be your reward for trying to force one of these things off the road (although that’s not how we earned the star in our windscreen)!

Here’s the latest update FYI:

We went on an interesting tour of the Undara Lava Tubes and were told that the Undara volcanic eruption produced around 23 cubic kms of lava (enough to fill Sydney Harbour more than 3 times). Apparently, the outer surface of the lava flow cooled enough to form an insulated “pipe” through which molten lava continued to flow and the lava just drained out when the flow stopped – pretty much like water through a hose pipe.  Occasionally, a top section of a lava tube collapses revealing huge “pipes” like this one in Road Tube.  The floor has become silt-filled and water level in the tubes indicates the level of the water table.

The Undara Resort has a railway theme with accommodation in old railway carriages.  The same theme carries over into the restaurant and it took us back years!  The beautiful pool did look enticing, although we did not stay in the caravan & camping area, preferring to press on to Innot Hot Springs.

This is the most expensive diesel we’ve discovered so far – at Undara Lava Tubes Resort, miles from nowhere.  

Rhonda loves hot artesian springs and couldn’t wait to try out the pools at Innot Hot Springs.  Artesian water comes up at 85degC and is fed slowly into the pools.  Great for the health, skin, etc., & seriously good just to sit in and chat away the hours.

The sands on the bank are hot in spots and generate quite a bit of steam in the early morning.

We came upon this 20-turbine wind farm near Ravenshoe in the Atherton Tablelands.  Impressive, big, noisy!

No trip to Tolga would be complete without visiting the peanut man.  Locally grown, big variety, bought lots!

We liked these pretty Snowflake Bushes in FNQ (Far North Queensland) and saw many good specimens.

The Baron Falls at Kuranda are impressive from any angle. There was much more water flowing last time we were here when we followed Cyclone Larry up the coast. 

The final descent into Cairns provides a great view over the coastal plain.  Cairns city is off to the right and a cable ski park is centre right.

We shared Sunday morning at Cairns Pres Church & appreciated both the message & friendship.

Rhonda spotted this tropical tree in the Botanical Gardens as we drove by and we stopped for a closer look.  The flower buds contained the next batch of leaves which emerged soft and light coloured.  Fascinating!

We changed a worn tyre at The Oasis roadhouse (with Pierre’s help) and then tried to buy a spare in Mareeba and in Cairns.  Sadly, we found that there was no 18” Cooper ATR or BFG available in Queensland.  We decided not to try to drive to Cape York with a dodgy spare – way too risky!  So, we have booked on a 4WD Bus tour which leaves early Tuesday morning and hope to have some interesting pix for our next update in a week or so.

Until then, stay safe & God bless.

Spencer & Rhonda

4. Longreach Q - Winton Q - Hughenden Q - Charters Towers Q

We have fallen in love again with the Australian Outback.  The big sky country with stunning sunsets, awesome clear starry nights and beautiful sunrises.  Not to mention the fantastic bush poets we have heard at some of the parks we have stayed. No-one is in a rush and we love talking with the locals.  We have enjoyed many a yarn around a camp fire under the stars with fellow travellers – the list goes on and on! What a marvelous country this is and how blessed are we to be living here and able to travel around and enjoy it.

Winton-Hughenden-Richmond is Dinosaur country and we saw huge dinosaur bones at the Australian Age of Dinosaurs at Winton.  A local farmer had sent some strange “rock” for testing in the late 1990’s and discovered that they were dinosaur bones. Many volunteers came forward to dig and clean up many shattered bones.  Most of these bones are like 3-D jigsaw puzzles.

George made a very interesting and entertaining guide.  Here are the bones discovered so far for Diamantinasauras Matildae, a new category named after the property name Diamantina station on which the bones were found.  Naturally, the anticipated discussion about possible ages & whether a river could form such a vast flood plain occurred gently & in private.

Arno’s Wall in Winton shows how to build efficiently whilst cleaning up the backyard junk in a way that enables you to keep an eye on it!

Each sunset we have seen at Winton has been spectacular.  Tonight was no exception.  Afterwards we enjoyed bush poetry & yarns by Mel & Suzie, two excellent performers.  Mel’s rendition of Rolfolfo the Dolfog was very, very funny and had the audience in continual stitches.

You’ve seen the sunset and now here’s the sunrise. 

Here is Rhonda belting (literally) out a tune at the Musical Fence at Winton

This is the almost complete skeleton of Muttaburrasaurus in Hughenden Q - no prizes for guessing that it was found near Muttaburra Qld.

Porcupine Gorge National Park is 63k from Hughenden and is often referred to as Australia’s Little Grand Canyon.  It was spectacular.

11k further up the road, we discovered the Pyramid.

We’re guessing that this rock structure helped name the Pyramid in Porcupine Gorge.  The walk down wasn’t too bad . . . . . the 1.2k vertical(ish) walk back up was much more trying!  The effort was worth it though with beautiful scenes greeting us wherever we looked. Also, Rhonda was in bed & asleep by 8:30pm that night.

Here’s Rhonda in Hughenden Q with an artist’s impression of what Mutt might have looked like with skin & bones.  The Hotel Grand in the background must have been impressive in its day!

On to Charters Towers for our third visit.  Each time we are impressed by the beautiful architecture of the period, represented in the dozens of buildings which have been very well preserved.  This one is City Hall.

and the Telegraph Office

and the Royal Private Hotel.

Spen was fascinated with this single skin (the inside wall) construction with the studs painted & exposed.  Would save on external wall sheeting or bricks I guess.

May God watch over you until we meet again. 

Best wishes from Spencer & Rhonda.

3. Nardoo Station (near Cunnamulla Qld) – Longreach Qld

How’s this for a giant Bilby?  It does look a bit piggy from this angle (that would be the one on the post!).  We visited the Bilby Centre at Charleville Q and saw these neat little marsupials from the bandicoot family.  They are around the size of a small cat and have large, translucent, rabbit-like ears and black & white tails.  Rhonda thinks they are really cute.  We saw 2 females which proved impossible to photograph in the low red light, particularly as they didn’t stop running around.

We stopped for lunch at the beautiful lakeside rest stop in Tambo Q, along with about 10 other caravans, all doing the same thing.  Fortunately, the area was big enough for us all. 

The road was a little bumpy between Tambo and Barcaldine and Rhonda ‘had fun’ re-stacking the crockery shelves, etc., after we arrived. 

We found the site of the original Black Stump in Blackall Q and are now in the area once considered to be “Beyond the Black Stump” ie. west of Blackall.  A petrified tree stump now marks the spot.  Comfortable cars, air conditioning and bitumen roads sure make this trip easier.

The Tree of Knowledge died in 2006 and so we checked out the $5m wooden structure built around the original tree as a memorial.  An impressive, huge scale construction which also acts like a wooden wind chime in heavy winds.

We arrived in Longreach in time to join Scott, Belinda and friends from their church for a surprise camp birthday dinner for Terry at Starlight’s Lookout, about 60k from Longreach.  We enjoyed good company, good food and marvelous views from this solitary hill in vast, open country. 

Scott borrowed a trailbike for Spen then took us to the bike track on the common outside Longreach.  He was delighted when Rhonda agreed to a (gentle) double around the track – duly captured on video of course! 

Scott had a hoot and handles jumps with ease.  Spen on the other hand rode much more slowly and was dubbed ‘Spencer the Safe’ because he needs all limbs to remain in working order for the rest of the holiday.

On the good news front - Toby & Neo (S&B’s dog) seem to be getting on well and Spen re-connected two clearance lights on the caravan after a repairer cut the cable accidentally.