Back to Crocodile Country

Day 1.   21/07/2022

We are off doing our first big trip since covid. We have both been very lucky and avoided catching the virus. So this is our first big trip and this time its 6 weeks into crocodile country, “Karumba” and “Cooktown” in north queensland. My son and his girlfriend are expecting any day now, so we will visit them on our way back down the east coast. I have bought a new Prado tow vehicle and our new caravan is due in november, so for this trip we will give the old van one last journey. We have our kayaks and are expecting to do some paddling, but not in with the crocs. 

At the finish of day 1, we are set up at Barney’s caravan park in  NSW. A nice smaller park and they let us light a fire. A good meal of mixed bbq a few Canadian and dry’s, and we are like pigs in mud.

I left work yesterday at lunch time as I was getting the caravan and Prado weighed at a public welghbridge. No issues with the setup but we rearranged some equipment to assist with some slight understeer. Tomorrow we head off to Lightning Ridge where we will spend 2 nights and see some of the attractions. 

Study on Curry Pies

I have been doing a ruff curry pie survey to find in my opinion the best curry beef pie in Australia. To date the results are, and I cannot give a 10 as yet.

This survey has been since April 2022.

9.5, Mudgee Bakery, Mudgee

9.0, Mendooran Bakery, Mendooran

9.0, Outback Bakery, Cootamundra

8.5, Capertee Servo, Capertee

8.0, Stockmans Hall of Fame, Longreach

Stay tuned for more updates and hopefully some more interesting pictures.

Day 2, 22/07/2022

This evening we are in Opal caravan park, Lightning Ridge. A latish start to the day and we were on the road about 9 am. Clear blue skies made for a great days driving. We stopped at Galargambone for food, but nothing was open, shame about the town there was not much of the central business district left. Most of the shops were closed and the rest in a state of disrepair. So off to Coonamble and found a really good cafe, the Global Village. Highly recommended. We stopped many times to get some pics of Emus and luckily we haven’t seen any roos as yet, which is probably good. The new car is getting along about 12.5 litres per hundred km’s and is very comfortable to drive, Fang has the entire back seat to herself along with a heated seat, she never causes many dramas just happy to be along for the drive. We are having a baked lamb dinner tonight, courtesy of the air frier. A very versatile cooking gadget, lightweight and quick cooking, I will post a pic. Tomorrow we will do some sight seeing and maybe buy some opal, although it wont be expensive opal. 

Must give a huge hello to Scott, Roadie, Harro and Vin. I will see you all sometime in the future.

Day 3, 23/07/2022

A sightseeing day today, plenty to see and do in Lightning Ridge but probably not for weeks on end. We stayed at the Opal Holiday park, big sites and excellent amenities, you pay what you get but the park is the best. The bore baths are only 200m away, so of a night we would walk there for a therapeutic soak. The water temp is 41 degrees all the time so you cant stay in to long. The baths are not for bathing either, so no soap allowed. 

We went on the Chambers of the Black Hand mine underground mine tour. About 2.5 hours and a very eyeopening tour. One level is for the mine owners sculpture, too many to mention them all, have a look at the pics then go for a holiday to see this mine properly. We also toured the second level where the opal seam is located. It would have been a harsh living back before modern mining techniques arrived. Cath bought a small piece of opal chip, white opal with red color through the chip. White opal is more Coober Pedy but some white opal chips can be found.

Back at the camp ground the usual park singers started the afternoon show, funny how the dogs stared howling in tune with the songs, poor old Slim would be turning in his grave. All in all we had a great time here, and will maybe come back again, some time in the future.

Day 4, 24/07/2022

Today was a driving day from Lightning Ridge to Roma in Qld about 450 km. First proper stop was at Dirranbandi where the next sample in the curry pie survey was tasted. The pie was very good, probably about an 8.5. There were a lot of caravan combinations travelling south and we made good time as the roads are in fairly good condition, a little water damage but not pot holed. We have seen heaps of emu’s and today we saw the first mob of roo’s for this trip. Luckily they stayed off the road. We are staying at the Roma Gun Club caravan park and we were able to watch some of the club members practicing their shooting. We feel extremely safe here tonight, who is going to hassle caravaners at a gun club.

I refuelled the prado at Roma and on leaving the servo the caravan rear view camera cable snagged on the kerb. I have spliced the cable and the camera is operational again, but I need to fix it properly.

Tomorrow we off to Carnarvon Gorge, where we will camp without electricity for a few days. We have a good fire pit though, so we wont be roughing it all that bad.

Till tomorrows update, Max n Cath

Day 5,6,7,8,9

Today is a multi day update due to lack of internet service. We are at Lake Maraboon near Emerald QLD having travelled a distance of 1600 km. 

Day 5. We travelled from Roma after visiting Big Rig museum. Roma is home the origins of gas and oil drilling in australia. The museum has a tree top walk and a tower to scale and have an eagle eye view of the exhibits. So on to Carnarvon Gorge national park. Luckily we were booked into the Sandstone camping ground, 360 degree views of the country, no showers but very clean portable toilets and all sites have a personal fire pit that came in handy for 2 of the nights that got a bit chilly.  We stopped at Injune for lunch at a really great cafe “Cafe on Second”, the local cop had set up inside and we spent a leisurely hour there watching him move caravaners on from parking where they shouldn’t, including us. He didnt book anyone just explained the parking rules in his town.

So we arrived in Carnarvon gorge, set up the van and spent the afternoon just veging out. No power on the sites meant bbqs for dinner, but that was no issue as the car fridge had kept our supplies nice n cold.

Day 6 After a mid morning wake up, we decided to do a short walk to Mickeys gorge. There is an abundance of spectacular scenery here and while the walk was short we took a lot of pics. A lot of sore body parts that night after the walk, but we decided to do the big walk the next day in honour of a friend who passed away while trekking in europe a few months ago. Sad sad story.

Day 7. Off we trekked to the artist galley at Carnarvon gorge. Disappointed to find they had ran out of coffee just before we got there. It was a great walk and like many other walkers we had taken our lunch with us to enjoy at the gallery. We did the walk in about 5 hours, the track just seemed to get longer and longer. All in all a very enjoyable few days. Recommended to visit if bush camping and bush walking is your thing, just have to plan your food and bathing requirements. Our new van, due in november will fix both of these issues in the future. The van will have full ensuite and solar power.

Day 8 & 9. A short drive into Lake Maraboon caravan park. We had planned a 2 night stop here and attempt to catch some red claw. Red claw are a type of large fresh water  yabby and its illegal to put them back into the waters of southern qld, no bag limits and no license required. The van park also has a licensed restaurant and serves a really great serve of crumbed red claw. We paddled the kayaks about 4km on day 9, but it was cold and windy so not one of our best paddles, but not forgettable either. I had purchased a yabby trap and used it for the 2 night, but at the time of writing this update, I had only caught about a dozen fresh water prawns. Some of the other red claw anglers had not caught many yabbies either so I dont feel left out. I suppose catching no yabbies keeps our fishing score of not many at probably very accurate.

Both of our nights here we ate at the restaurant, so we are defiantly getting into holiday mode.

Tomorrow we are off to Longreach, and we scored 2 seats on the paddle steamer/ night show. Should be a great few days.

Max n Cath

Day 10,11&12

Today day 12 we are sitting outside the van trying to cool off. Although the temperature is not super high @24 its been a warmish last few days. We had a small spit of rain early in the morning, but not enough to wet the ground. Day 10 was a day of driving along easy roads, not much undulation and reasonably straight. We stopped for breakfast at Bogantungan, site of one of qld worst rail disasters. Town reportedly had 28 hotels at one stage, sadly the population at the last census was 6. 

We made good time to Barcaldine, expecting to eat at one of the establishments, again sadly they all close around 12:30 pm on weekends so we grabbed a snack at the local servo the drove the final 106 km to Longreach.

We are spending 3 nights here and as Cath and myself had been to Longreach many times previously the local attractions didnt have the same appeal.

Yesterday while we in town, there was a bloke riding a Brahman in the the main street, he said Ollie who weighed in around 1000kg was just his way of adding to the local tourist attractions. similar to Mongo from Blazing Saddles, only in Longreach.

We have just been to the Stockmans Hall of Fame and tonight we are doing a river cruise on a paddle steamer. Not sure if the boat is the “ Pride of the Murray”, this boat has just been relocated here and they have 2 boats and we wont know which boat we are on till tonight.

The Longreach Tourist caravan park is huge, located just across the road from the Qantas Museum, great facilities and we got a site with an on-suite.

We ventured into the town proper to stock up on some items and true to form out here, not an open hairdresser shop in sight. All 3 were closed, you could make a fortune in van parks doing basic haircuts. I dont know what the locals do when they want their haircuts, maybe thats why they all look a bit grizzled out here.

I will post a pic of an outback caravan & tow vehicle that is damped up here.

A triple axle job, all the bells and whistles, a boat on the roof of the v8 ute, multiple tool boxes, a scrub shooting buggy and somehow this vehicle is “Legal”  must be close to 8000kg GCM. Maybe everything’s ok, until you get caught.

Day 13 & 14

Day 13 and back on the road for the journey from Longreach to Kynuna. An uneventful trip, the major differences from the last time I came through this area are, the place has come to life after the rain and no wind. We stopped at Winton for a meal and whilst we were eating I received a call from my son Dean & Sarah saying their son Mason had been born about an hour previously. That was good news, my first grandchild. We might be a couple of old dinosaurs, but we decided against going to the dinosaur park just outside Winton. I guess if you have kids and are travelling through here you might be interested in going, but not us.

We left Winton for Kynuna, a very small town about 170 km south of Cloncurry. I had seen the Blue Heeler pub many times before but never stopped. This time we were staying at the onsite van park. It was a great choice, good drinks, good food, good atmosphere. We let our hair down a little and wet the babies head, so to speak, played some darts and pool, played very badly would be more appropriate but had a great time. I donated some money to the RFDS and for that you get to write on the pub wall. Cath signed the wall but we didnt have a camera with us to get a pic, and the pub was closed next morning when we left.

Day 14, We got some more pics of Brolgas and us sitting on the pub verandah and hit the road to Cloncurry. I would recommend the Blue Heeler Pub for any travellers.

The trip through to Cloncurry again was uneventful, except for the obligatory stop at McKinlay and the Walkabout Creek hotel, of crocodile dundee fame. Not much has changed here and the fuel outlet is still by remote card access. We took some pics of feral camels and apart from huge swarms of budgies there is not much of note.

We got to Cloncurry set up the van at the Oasis van park and tried to find refuge from the heat, according to the prado outside temp 36 degrees. There was also a notable lack of flies here, not sure why but the locals say the Winton flies are not allowed to cross the border.

To report on the last night in Longreach.

We went for our Thomson river/ dinner cruise, and this was one highlight for the trip.  Luckily we were on the Thomson Belle and were able to get some good pics of the Pride of the Murray, the boat that was transported overland recently. The cruise was informative, the meal and show made for a great value for money outing

Day 15. Cloncurry to Burke & Wills Roadhouse, 185 km.

Today was a very easy day. Only 185 km to the Burke & Wills roadhouse about halfway from Cloncurry to Normanton. We decided to travel shorter distances before the day heats up and this gives all of us an easy days travelling. I didnt stop at Old  Quamby Pub and trying to find somewhere handy to turn the van around wasnt going to happen, so we continued on our drive. I hear the pub is undergoing renovations, so next time Im up this way I will stop. We arrived at the roadhouse just after 11 am and after some deliberation picked a van site that would provide shade later in the day. Im not exactly sure what the temperature ended up during the mid afternoon but it musta been close to 36. The food at the roadhouse is very good and the atmosphere is a pure outback experience. By late afternoon the van park was packed, lucky for us we had power and a concrete slab with awning, making for a great afternoon.

Tomorrow we will start early so we get to Karumba before the heat of the day. I have a few pics from today to post, some of the birds here behave strangely, not sure why, maybe professor google can help.

Day’s 16,17,18,19,20. Burke & Wills Roadhouse to Karumba then to Atherton, 885 km.

Sorry about the delay in updating, there is not much internet service out here. 

We left the Burke & Wills roadhouse and made good time to Normanton. Not far into this stage of the trip, the road changes from normal two way traffic to road train route style, meaning two sealed lanes for a few kms the single sealed lane for a few kms. If you meet a road train, they have right of way for the entire sealed lane, other traffic has to use the edge of the lane. The single lane section had very deep drop offs to the edges and on the first section of road train route we passed the wreckage of a dual axle caravan, that had come to grief. I expect going too fast and the driver losing control when the vans wheel encountered the drop off. There was no sign of the towing vehicle, just the mangled van. There was no where we could safely get off the road for a pic, sorry about that too.

Apart from those few road hazards we arrived in Normanton for lunch, but as Karumba was only another 70 km we decided to continue driving on.

We arrived at the Sunset Caravan Park at Karumba Point and again we lucked in to find we had a very shady van site, close to the amenities, the boat ramp, water and Ash’s cafe, some of the best takeaway food ever. 

So for the next 3 nights we gorged ourselves on Mud crab, local banana prawns & barramundi. Not sure whats happening in Karumba, there were a lot of holiday units, houses and businesses for sale in the town. I can see the towns reliance on fishing and tourism, so maybe its just the cycle of life for Karumba.

We visited the Barramundi centre where they breed barramundi for stocking rivers, a huge venture and one well worth seeing, of interest was to watch the Whistling Kites sitting on a railing waiting for the food pellets for the barramundi get thrown into the ponds, apparently the kites love the pellets. Kites are a very close family and not often do you just see one. 

We did the sunset and croc watching cruise and again we were not disappointed, an excellent cruise, excellent catering and got to see at least 6 proper salt water crocs, not one of those pet ones the croc feeding operators use. Wow they are so sly, and so close to Karumba, all the ones we saw were in sight of the town.

The sunsets here are spectacular and crowds gather in throngs to witness the sunsets here, I think we got some good pics.

The object of this trip has been achieved, we still have Cooktown to go for crocs, so we might see some there. I deliberately haven’t mentioned fishing. We tried on 2 occasions to do some land based fishing, but had no luck, so our fishing averages are still abysmal, but we had fun trying, at least the fish shop had plenty. We dined on mud crab one night, cooked to perfection and we even had salad with the meal.

All in all Karumba had plenty to offer and we will revisit again, for a longer stay next time, I still need to go on a fishing charter.

We left Karumba and headed off east towards Atherton. A partway stop at Mount Surprise, probably lived up to its name. I had stopped here some years ago, while travelling by motorcycle. I had repaired a puncture and stopped here because the servo had an airline. The servo is now closed and the remaining servo now hosts the Australia post services. 

The local who runs the cafe and the van park we stayed at was away when we arrived and had left a notice he would return at 5 pm. This he did so we payed our van fees and ordered a Barra burger for dinner. This was cooked perfectly, but after we left he closed up about 5:30 ish. So no one else could get any food and I dont think the pub was doing meals either. Still a nice park to stay at, if you dont expect 4 star accomodation.

So on to today. We are at Lake Tinaroo van park. This is close to Atherton and we will stay here for 3 nights.

Along the way we stopped at Innot Springs. These springs are thermal, but not like Lightning Ridge or Moree. The boiling hot water bubbles through the sand of the creek bed and mingles with the cold water of the creek. You make your way onto the sand bank and sort of dig a bath into the sand and the water bubbles into the hole. You just have to dig an inlet for some cold water to even out the temperature. Very very strange place, you couldn’t sit in the water for half hour or so, too hot. 

Back on the road into Ravenshoe and of course, find a bakery. Job done, we found one but they dont do curry pies, dang. I had to eat the standard beef pie. If this pie was a sample of their bakery, then they may be leading the curry pie survey, if they baked a curry pie, shame about that, very nice pies indeed.

Tomorrow we will launch the kayaks and paddle some of the lake, so looking forward to that, as long as the wind stays away.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Day 21, Atherton.

Today we kayaked part of Lake Tinaroo, visited Lake Eacham, Millaa Millaa Falls, Gallo Dairy & Chocolate factory.

We launched the kayaks down at the van park boat ramp. The wind was non existent in the early morning, but by 8 am had picked up, so we decided against paddling into the wind and so followed the shore line into one of the tributaries flowing into the dam proper. In the far reaches the water grasses had invaded the water course and although most tinnies could not navigate that far, our kayaks with their shallow draft could and so we paddled up as far as we could. The variety of water birds was astounding, we tried to get good pics but the wind kept spoiling the shots by turning the kayaks in a spin.

The way back to the boat ramp was fairly easy, as we just drifted along using the paddles as a sail and catching the wind.

We were going to do some fishing, but the barramundi are huge and apparently are very hard to catch during the cooler months so we didnt do any fishing. The dam is very popular with anglers during the summer and covers a huge area.

We probably paddles 3 to 4 km in total and as the wind was gathering speed we called it a day and returned to the launch site.

The new kayak loader on the prado also is making life easier for us two to reload the kayaks.

Onwards to Lake Eacham, I think this is an old volcano crater that has filled with water over many years and is part of a chain of lakes here in the Atherton tablelands. We had no intention of kayaking here, it is possible but just not worth the effort to get the kayaks off the roof of the car.

Apparently there is one fresh water crocodile living there, but we didnt see it and as there were a few swimmers in the water, I dont think they saw it either. Still quite a nice lake and the water is a brilliant blue when the sun is at the correct position.

We then headed off to Millaa Millaa falls about 25 km away. A nice drive though the hills and a short walk and we were there. Cath say it stops flowing some times, but had never seen the falls dry.

On the way out we passed a tea house and as we hadnt had a Devonshire tea on the trip to date we decided to indulge. Unfortunately the tea house was closed, so off to the next destination of Gallo cheese & chocolate factory. What luck, they had Devonshire teas and all sorts of cheese and chocolates. We got some contraband to takeaway had a really good scone with jam & cream with the tea, had a gander at all the cows ready for milking and worked out that we should visit again tomorrow, just to be check the quality of the merchandise hadnt changed.

I think tomorrow we are off to Herberton.

Day 22 & 23

Today thursday 11th Aug we ventured out to Herberton to see the Spy & Camera museum. The bloke who runs and owns the museum has a fantastic collection of cameras and spying paraphernalia. 

He showed us various cameras and how camera development occurred, but then went into explaining how the cameras of the early 1900’s can actually produce the best pictures. The tour runs for 40 mins and is well worth the time.

Also at Herberton is the Historical Village. On going through the gates the girl explained about a 3 day pass, why would you need a 3 day pass. We soon found out! , the place is full of displays, demonstrations of eg blacksmithing, steam engines etc.

We spent a few hours here and probably only saw a small part of the village, the pictures dont do the village justice, I expect you will just have to visit to see for yourselves.

We returned to the van park to prepare for the final leg of our journey north, from Atherton to Cooktown only a short day of 312 km.

On the road by 8 and our first stop was at Coffee Works, Mareeba, nice coffee, chocolate and odds n ends but a bit pricey, so we got takeaway and drove off to Mount Malloy for smoko, where you can still get, arguably the best hamburger in the world. I had a burger here back in 2014 and the quality is still the same, very nice indeed. 

On then to Bobs lookout and Black Mountain, I wont post pics, they are already in the Cairns trip tabs.

We arrived in Cooktown at the Peninsula van park, luckily we had booked in advance, by 3 pm the park was filling quickly and by dark, no vacancies were to be had.

Cooktown hasnt changed much, but it is growing, a few more shops and such and I think 2 more van parks since 2014.

We are only here for 2 nights so tomorrow we will spend sightseeing and maybe a little fishing, maybe go down to the jetty with a long pole, some rope and a chook carcass and go fishing for crocodiles. I gunna need a bigger net and maybe a gaff.

Till tomorrow, Max n Cath

Day 24.

Today was spent sightseeing. We walked to Finch Bay, not a long walk, but it doesn’t take much up here to get warm and sweaty. There were a few people on the beach with dogs. Apparently crocs can smell dogs and hunt them down, we had left Josie at the van park, but we stayed away from the people any way. The river/stream running into the sea at finch bay looked good enough to fish, but the waters also looked like croc country so we played it safe and stayed away from that activity too. 

We drove to Grassy Hill lookout and wondered what James Cook must have thought when he, the Endeavour and crew were stranded here after the boat was damaged hitting the coral reef. So far from home, limited supplies, tools and no communications, scary stuff. He musta drank a few cans of cement to harden up a bit. 

For dinner we ate at the Sovereign Resort, again more seafood but its hard to get sick of eating more seafood.

Tomorrow we leave Cooktown for somewhere down near Cairns, nearly all the van parks are booked solid at this moment so we had to take what booking we could.

Cooktown is historically significant and visiting here again has been special, sometimes you have to see a place twice to absorb what you are seeing, but I dont think we will return again in the future.

Till tomorrow

Max n Cath

Day 25, Cooktown to Cairns, 350 km.

We left Cooktown as usual about 8:30 and made good time to the Lakeland roadhouse, despite the wind. The wind in the Cooktown area predominately comes from the south east, so we would be driving into the wind for most of the trip. We only filled up with food as I knew the prado would make the distance back to Cairns where proper fuel could be bought for 205 per litre. I dont know why there is about 40 cents per litre difference between Qld and NSW. Something dodgy going on somewhere.

The trip south was without incident, except for 2 fools in 4wd’s that had probably left from the Mt Carbine rodeo, overtaking over double unbroken centrelines. They weren’t involved in an accident, but that was due to luck, not ability.

We turned onto the road to Mossman, just north of Mt Malloy as we had never taken this route into Cairns. A very nice drive, very twisty and the downhill run from the Rex Range lookout was very congested, probably due to the fine weather on a sunday.

We detoured into Port Douglas just to have a drive through as I had never been there before, maybe we will revisit Port Douglas and do the Daintree at some future stage. There seemed to be a lot of people in Port Douglas, just like what you would expect at xmas time.

We stopped off t a lookout over the sea near to Hartleys Crocodile Adventure park, and witnessed a hang glider taking flight. There were a few other gliders there, but I dont know where they were going to land, the beach was all stones there, not sand. 

So we arrived at our van park, nearly musta been the last vacancy in Cairns, everywhere else was booked out, not sure why. Only going to be an overnighter here, then we move on the Innisfail tomorrow. Only a very short day tomorrow as we want to check out 2 points of interest a few kms south of Innisfail, but we will leave the van at the van park.