One Small Lap
Caravan Park
Day 35 – Alice Springs
Today we pick up Justine’s mum, Dawn. She will be with us for the next 10 days. Last night we tested Caitlin sleeping on one of the bench cushions. We were going to have her where the table is, but we’ve worked out her legs can actually fit under our fold down bed. She loves it, it’s a bit like sleeping in a cubby.
Continue reading “Day 35 – Alice Springs”
There is a road about 8km back along the Plenty, it’s part of the Binns Track, it takes you into the Easts MacDonnell ranges, and then we could go to Alice via the Easts Macs road, I’ve asked a couple of people and it seems it would be too rough to take the van through, we we’ll stick to the black stuff today.
Continue reading “Day 34 – Gemtree to Alice Springs”
At about 2am, the storm that we were enjoying so much when it was 50km away, now wasn’t so nice when it was on top of us. There was a bit of lightening, almost no rain, but the wind was so strong the van was being buffeted around quite a bit. I heard the table or chairs go, so raced outside to get these under the van for some protection. Justine and I have a pretty restless night’s sleep, we’re not scared as such, but it’s just a little un-nerving, the van is moving quite a lot. And of top of all this, it hasn’t cooled down either.
Continue reading “Day 33 – The Plenty Highway – Day 2”
Today is really a catch up day do some washing and rest a bit. We go shopping, a quick trip to Kmart to get some supplies, and we can’t go past the pool noodles. Then over to Coles to stock up on groceries. Important safety tip, don’t come to this place on a Saturday. It makes Coles Leichhardt on Christmas Eve look tame.
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”
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!.
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.
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.
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”
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”