One Small Lap
Our three quarter lap of OZ
Today we booked on the 9:45 scenic train from Freshwater up to Kuranda. We need to drive to Smithfield and park the car and van, which is actually the end of the trip, from here we pick up a bus to take us to Freshwater to start the train journey. It took me a few goes to work out the plan.
Continue reading “Day 21 – Cairns to Newell Beach”
Today we are up early as I want to try and visit Cooktown. Now I should let you know I have this absolute hatred of going over the same road twice. Fortunately there are two ways to get to Cooktown. The inland road and the coast road. The inland road is about 300km of regular country highway. The coast road is more interesting.
Continue reading “Day 22 – Newell Beach to Cooktown and Return”
A slow start, and we head into Port Douglas to have a look at the town and do some shopping before we head west. Port Douglas is a whole lot different to the towns around it. It’s a town not really designed for Vans. Boats yes, Vans No.
Continue reading “Day 23 – Newell Beach to Archers Creek”
We’ve only got about 150km to go today so we’re off to a slow start.
We backtrack about 10km and visit Millstream Falls, Really beautiful, it’s unfortunate that you can’t actually get down to the water as it look really inviting.
Nearby to Undara is Kalkani Crater, an extinct volcano crater, it’s about 15km away. It was too hot to think about walking up there yesterday, and given our tour today is at 10:30 we can sneak in a side trip this morning. We are there at 8am, but it is already pretty warm.
Continue reading “Day 25 – Undara to Georgetown.”
Everyone sleeps in a bit more than would be expected. Up and breakfast and I take the short walk up to the dam wall. There are a huge number of birds here, I guess it is the only permanent water for a while around.
A short drive today, only about 80km. We’re on our way at 10am, and we stop off for a quick photo with Krys the croc (a full size replica of a croc killed up here in ’57). It’s just after we take this photo we see the large sign saying don’t climb on the croc – Sorry!.
I’ve looked at the itinerary and I think we can fit in a side trip to Lawn Hill. There are two ways to get there. We can go west via a dirt road to Burketown and then head south to Gregory Downs, or we can go south to the “Four Ways” then west to Gregory downs, the latter is longer although quicker, as it is all tar, but will require about 150km of backtracking the following day. Did I mention I hate back tracking?
Given how hot it is we have a really good sleep, it is a nice reminder how effective a fan can be and maybe we don’t need AC all the time.
We wake to see the dam so calm you can see the reflection of the hills. Even though there are probably a dozen or so other campers here, they are so spread out it’s like we have the place to ourselves. It is so quiet here with just the sound of the birds, there are hundred here.
Continue reading “Day 30 – Corella Dam to Mt Isa”