We are now back on the East Coast of Australia after experiencing the Red Centre and the Outback of this great country. What marvels we have seen. This has been the most amazing trip of our lifetime. You think you have seen the ultimate and then around the corner there is always something to surpass it. The National Parks are just fantastic with great facilities and walkways leading to the most amazing scenery. It has been a totally mind blowing experience. I know we have the greatest scenery in New Zealand and it is all compressed into our marvellous little country but it is the distance and the vastness of Australia that makes everything seem so much bigger. The first day when we left Port Augusta on our way north on the Stuart Highway way back in May we were amazed to see a road hoarding advertising a superette 418 kms. away!! We thought it was a great joke, but it was true. There was just nothing for 418 kms. We haven't seen farmhouses as we know them in New Zealand all along the side of the highway. We have seen road signs to cattle stations that are over 100 kms. from the highway. These are huge stations with thousands of acreages and cattle spread over vast distances. The wet season was very wet in the top of Australia this year and in the Gulf of Carpenteria area it is estimated that there were over 10,000 head of cattle lost but they won't know until the muster is completed in a few weeks time. The Norman River was over 20 metres above normal and was 12 kilometres wide instead of about 300 metres. There were crocodiles swimming at the end of the main street of Normanton during this time. The locals showed us photos of all this but were very stoic about the whole thing. No wonder Australians are so competitive. They have to fight the elements the whole time.
We have had some difficulties with our communications this time. First of all we lost the Vodafone we bought last year so had to buy another but got the same number. What they failed to tell us is that Vodafone just doesn't work except on the East Coast so when we got Cooper Pedy we bought a Telstra phone which we thought would give us better coverage. It was a slight improvement but not much so when we got to Katherine we bought another Telstra phone, this time a NextG one, which according to the blurb put out by Telstra, will cover 90% of Australia. It certainly is better but we now have 3 phones! Last year I just used internet cafes or caravan park internet access to do my emails and blog but this time it has been much harder so after a lot of research among my caravan friends, we have bought a pre-pay wireless modem. This has been a great improvement and I can now use my computer nearly every day if I can get Telstra phone reception. These little hassles, plus losing all the data from our hard drive on the computer, have certainly made a hole in our budget.
Anyway back to our travels. We had our golf game in Mount Isa and what an experience that was. The course was just red dust and stone for fairways and the greens left a lot to be desired. Needless to say the golf wasn't a great success. The exercise was needed though. Mount Isa was very busy during our stay and all the caravan parks were fully booked out every night. The grey nomads are certainly making their presence felt on the roads around Australia.
Our next stop was Normanton which is a town of about 1,500 situated just south of the Gulf of Carpenteria. It was originally a mining town and it was hoped that the river would become the main port for the area but once the gold ran out, so did the big plans. The road from Cloncurry to Normanton was our first experience of driving on a single lane road, not 2 single lanes both going in the same direction but just a single lane road with red dust on the sides of it. If we met another vehicle, especially a road train, we had to pull off and just stop until they had passed as we couldn't see for the dust anyway. We went for a ride on the Gulflander train during our stay in Normanton. This is a vintage railcar that travels on a line that was built in the late 1880s. The train only travelled at 24 kms. per hour as any faster would be dangerous for the passengers. It was great fun and we stopped out in the bush by a billabong for billy tea and cake. The next day we drove up to Karumba which is a port town situated right on the base of the Gulf of Carpenteria. It is also known for great fish and chips and fresh prawns. We bought 1 dozen prawns for $12 to take back to the caravan and then bought some cooked barramundi and chips to eat on the beach while watching the sunset. What a sight. There were people all along the beach doing the same as us and having a great time.
Our next stop was Mount Surprise which is situated near the Undara Volcanic National Park. We stayed at one of the best caravan parks we have stayed in yet. It is called Bedrock Caravan Park and the owners have done a great job building this park up from just a bed of rocks 10 years ago. The facilities were 5 star and the staff and the owners cook meals each night, have a bonfire with entertainment and take guests on a surprise tour of the area. There are only 65 people in Mount Surprise so they are trying all different things to get tourism into the area. We climbed up the top of Kalkani Crater and walked around the rim of the crater. There have been lots of volcanoes in this area.
It was then onto Cairns where we were to meet up with Sue and Bev, 2 of my golf friends, and their partners in Trinity Beach. It was great to catch up with them and get all the news. We went out for dinner a couple of times and one night they put on a BBQ for us at their apartment. We were really spoiled with garlic prawns for entree and steak, chops, sausages and salads for mains. They decorated the table with candles, balloons, sparklers, party hats and we all had a great time. It was certainly a night to remember. We went with them to the Trinity Beach Hotel to watch the first Bledisloe Cup game. I had a silver fern flag in my bag but we weren't confident enough to brandish it about until the final whistle. What faith!!
Our last stop before we start the long trek back to Brisbane was a trip up to Cooktown. This area was only accessible by dirt track up to about 4 years ago but it is now sealed all the way. The road was very good and only a couple of parts near Cooktown where the road had been washed away by the heavy rain in wet season made for a bit of a rough ride. Cooktown is like the last frontier really but the little town is just full of history. This was where Captain Cook pulled in to repair “Endeavour”. There is a lovely old building that was a convent and boarding school for Sisters of Mercy from the late 1800s to 1942 when all the nuns were sent down to Cairns while the war was on and the USA army took over the building. The nuns thought they would return but the building was left to rot until about 20 years ago when restoration was started and it now houses a great museum. It's amazing what these little towns do to promote themselves. Cooktown is typical of old towns in Australia, especially in the outback, with at least 3 pubs remaining of the 65 it used to have!! There are at least 4 caravan parks in Cooktown and they were all full up the whole time we were there. It was certainly busy and on the road from Cairns to Cooktown we saw more traffic than we probably saw on the whole of the Stuart Highway.
We are now in Port Douglas and civilisation again. We really loved the Outback with the changing scenery, road kill, road houses, and camaraderie we enjoyed on the road. We have met some great people and friends and look froward to keeping in touch with them.
It should be beaches and hopefully sunshine all the way back to Brisbane now so until my next epistle which will come from somewhere on the Bruce Highway we say Goodbye.
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