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Week 1, Day 1
Total: 377kms, Today: 377kms
As we've spent about a week getting ready, there wasn't too much to do to finally get on the road and consequently we were away by about 9:30.
We have been planning this trip for about 12 months. What started as 'Plan A' has ended up as 'Plan F, Option (b)' due to a host of reasons. To give you an idea of why we've chosen to go the way we have, you have to be aware of the following:-
* Quite a few of the roads we want to travel on were still closed when we left Brisbane (mostly in the Northern Territory due to The Wet) so our initial plan to have a route resembling a large Figure-of-Eight wasn't going to work. We'll play this by ear as we approach each stage.
* We want to visit 'Bowra' Station in SW Qld, but this was going to be closed for the first week in May, so we couldn't go that way.
* We wanted to visit Cobbold Gorge in NW Qld, but the most direct route had been disrupted by Cyclone 'Debbie' about a month ago and was seemingly full of road gangs repairing the damage.
* The temperatures in the interior of Qld had not been cooling down and so that wasn't going to be as comfortable as we would have liked.
* We generally like to steer clear of the Bruce Hwy (Highway 1 – Brisbane → Cairns) as it's not great from a surface point of view, had also been hit by Debbie and hence it also had lots of road works, and is full of large semi and B-Double trucks, but this was going to be the best of a bad bunch.
As we left Brisbane it suddenly occurred to us that this was the Friday of a long weekend (May Day) so every man + family + dog + 'tinny'/camper-trailer was on the road heading for the beach.
We just took it easy and finally reached the Rest Area at Gin Gin for a reasonably good night. The rest area also coincides with a truck parking area but they settled down after about 11pm.
Week 1, Day 2
Gin Gin Rest Area → St Lawrence Rest Area
Total: 828kms, Today: 451kms
Off to an early start, we stopped at the Boyne River for a snack. Next stop was Rockhampton for fuel – a bit of a shock as it had climbed 20c/lt in the 2 days since we left Brisbane. Not much, you might think, but when you're pouring 100+ litres into the tank, that adds up to $20 extra per tank. Our aim at the moment is to get to North Qld where we can leave the Bruce Hwy and start our 'real' trip, so we're not doing much in the way of sightseeing at the moment.
Week 1, Day 3
Total: 1284kms, Today: 456kms
Today was always going to be a bit of an eye-opener as we start to go through the area where Cyclone 'Debbie' crossed the coast. Sure enough, as we started to approach Proserpine, we started to see significant damage to crops, signposts and trees. As this is prime sugar cane country, and we're getting very close to the start of the cane harvest season, it was sad to see whole paddocks of cane flattened, all in one direction from the cyclonic winds. Likewise, normally green trees were totally stripped of leaves, and palm trees were just like poles with no foliage. Going around the edge of Proserpine (the road doesn't go through the middle of town), even a month after 'Debbie', there were houses with tarpaulins over the whole house, and some places where you could see there was no longer a house on the allotment, just debris. Some major road signs were bent through 90° and were parallel to the ground.
We ended the day in Ayr and found a delightful caravan park to stay for a couple of nights. Our plan is to have no more than 2 (or occasionally 3) days consecutive travel without a rest day, and this was a delightful place to see what things needed attention in either the van or the Cruiser. Fortunately, neither needed TLC.
Around Proserpine. Tarps over roofless homes
All the trees were just about leafless.
Week 1, Day 4
Ayr – Rest Day
Total: 1284kms, Today: 0kms
Washing, checking the vehicles and reading and that was about it.
Didn't even have to unhitch the van.
Week 1, Day 5
Total: 1660kms, Today: 376kms
If it's cane fields and huge trees and tree ferns and clouds over the mountains and it's a bit humid, then this must be North Qld!! We headed for our favourite rest area off the highway at Babinda. While we didn't use them, it has public showers and toilets and a delightful setting by the Russell River. We also noted it had become a bit more feral since our last visit, but no one offered us a joint, or to come and sing Kumbaya outside the van, so all was OK. I suspect the torrential downpour that happened about 10 minutes after we arrived (and left us in our own little private lake around the van) may have helped.
If the scenery looks like this, it's got to be Nth Qld
Rotary Park Rest Area, Babinda
Week 1, Day 6
Babinda Rotary Park – Mt Surprise
Total: 1932kms, Today: 272kms
After retracing our steps back to Innisfail to refuel and replenish both Cruiser and people, we finally left the Bruce Hwy and started heading West. We climbed the Great Dividing Range on the Palmerston Hwy to a height of 3000' (~900m) where it was decidedly more pleasant than the coast. We stopped at the Windy Hill Wind Farm (great giveaway in the name for a wind farm site) but were a little concerned about the profusion of 'Danger Poisonous Snakes' signs dotted around the carpark. The signs would seem to outnumber their referenced objects by about 8 to none.
We also stopped in Ravenshoe for a loo break at the Information Centre and ended up staying over an hour as we took in their great new heritage display. Lunch was at Millstream Falls Nat Pk just out of Ravenshoe where there was quite a bit more water that at our last visit years ago. The day ended at the ever-welcome Bedrock Village Caravan Pk at Mt Surprise.
Windy Hill, as evidenced by the tree at right.
You can surely tell when you've crossed the Great Dividing Range and left the rain forest behind.
Millstream Falls near Ravenshoe. A nice spot for lunch.
Week 1, Day 7
Total: 2109kms, Today: 177kms
We were told (thanks, LJ) that we just had to visit Cobbold Gorge if we were going this way, and so that's why we turned off the Savannah Way at Georgetown and headed down the track to Forsayth and finally Cobbold Gorge Resort. The road started as sealed, then graded gravel and then very ordinary gravel with protruding rocks after we passed the turnoff to Forsayth. This culminated with a caravan tyre that thoughtfully deflated (we think it was a sharp stone that caused it) while we were booking into Reception at the resort. At least it was better than having it happen in the middle of nowhere on a dusty roadside. Having put on two new tyres before this trip, I wasn't exactly ecstatic about this, but at least the tyre-changing process was reasonably trouble-free and we were soon at our delightful campsite for the next 3 nights.
One of the joys of Outback motoring - unfenced roads.
Pick a station. For those who wonder about our wonderful train system, these are cattle stations, not train stations.
Another joy - very sharp stones.
Yes, it's only flat on the bottom...
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