My trek north ended at Cooktown. I would have loved to keep going to the tip of Cape York but the roads up that way are unmade and not in great nick. Taking my van over them would be a real risk, so I turned around and now all of a sudden I'm sort of heading home. With my friend and housesitter due to move out of my place in September l need to plan anyway to be back in Yarrawonga no later than October. I'm a bit uncertain about going back though as a massive resurgence of Covid in Victoria has a large portion of the state in lockdown. That's the last place I want to be. Fingers crossed it's under control by then.
So from Cooktown with one grubby little James who decided to roll in the dirt, I retraced my steps and propped for the night in Mareeba. The place I chose from WikiCamps because it had great reviews did not disappoint. Ringers Rest RV Park was just a few kilometers out of town on a cattle property and at a cost of $10 per site was a bargain. It was really just a couple of large, flat paddocks with some shade trees and while it had no facilities l really liked it.
There were a dozen or so other vans in and that night the old bloke who owned the place set us a huge fire and several campers gathered around for evening drinks. It was fun.
Next morning a mare and her new born foal came for a visit. I fed them carrots and got a great close up look at the baby.
My destination next day was Mt Surprise some 260km south west on the Savannah Way. With plenty of time up my sleeve I made some of detours enroute, taking in Lake Tinaroo and Malanda Falls on the Atherton Tablelands. The falls were absolutely stunning.
One final detour just a kilometre or two off the Savannah Way gave James and me the opportunity for a walk to see the Millstream Falls. They are also spectacular but my photos didn't do them justice.
At Mt Surprise I had prebooked a couple of nights at Bedrock Village CP. There's bugger all at Mt Surprise but it was the closest place to stay to do a tour of the Undarra Lava Tubes and I needed several hours to do it. Bedrock was a bit run down but nice enough and $22 for a site with power and water was fair enough. My preference would have been to stay at Undarra but it was in a national park so strictly no dogs. My tour was booked for 1pm Wednesday so I left James in the van around 11.30 to make the 50 km trip. I arrived early and checked the place out. It offers a variety of accommodation options and the theme is all around old railway carriages. It was really quiet with Covid travel restrictions in place so lacked a bit of atmosphere, but I can imagine when busy it would be fun.
The caves are great. The tour guide loaded us into a mini bus for the short drive to the sections of cave we were viewing. The information he gave about how they were formed was really interesting. Reputed to be the longest lava tubes in the world they were created 190,000 years ago when some 23 cubic kilometres of lava flowed into a river bed and kept flowing for 160km. We got to check out three sections of cave. Another thing ticked off my bucket list!
On the way back to the van l stopped for a walk around the rim of the extinct Kalkani Volcano. It was only 2.5km and gave great views of the surrounding countryside.
The Savannah Way appears to be a work in progress. It's a great road from the Tablelands and through Mt Surprise towards Georgetown where it alternates between two beautiful lanes and one bumpy, crappy strip of old bitumen. When a vehicle comes from the opposite direction either you, or them, have to move over to the dirt. Progress is a bit slow on those bits. My plan was to stop at Croydon some 240km west and while it took longer than I expected to get there I was underwhelmed by the town and the camping options. I parked at the railway station, took James for a walk, had lunch and decided to continue a further 155km on to Normanton.
When I arrived at Normanton late arvo I was pleased I had made the call. It was a much nicer town. WikiCamps gave good reviews of the Normanton Tourist Park at the far end of town. An unpowered site was $13 and the location and facilities were great. I stayed hitched and headed off to explore on foot. The first thing we came across was the replica of an unbelievably massive crocodile named Krys, the largest recorded saltwater crocodile captured in the world. Sadly he was shot on the banks of the Norman River downstream of Normanton in 1957. He measured 8.63 metres and is estimated to have weighed over two ton. Truly scarey!
There are three pubs in Normanton. The Albion Hotel, the Central Hotel and The Purple Pub. All three are full of character and characters.
I seriously considered a pub crawl and dropped into the Albion first. It had a nice beer garden out back that James was allowed in and served bubbles - excellent! A well deserved drink after a long day. The bubbles, however, went straight to my weary brain. Hmmmm....maybe a pub crawl was not a great idea.
That night l sat around the community campfire and enjoyed chatting to some fellow travelers before hitting the sack pretty early with just a sheet covering me on the warmest night l had experienced since leaving SA in March.
JULY 2020 COVID-19 STATISTICS & SITUATION
1/3/20
Global Infections: 86,604 Australian Infections: 25
Global Deaths: 2977 Australian Deaths: 0
1/4/20
Global Infections: 871,371 Australian Infections: 4763
Global Deaths: 42,107 Australian Deaths: 20
1/5/20
Global Infections: 3,322,966 Australian Infections: 6766
Global Deaths: 234,408 Australian Deaths: 93
1/6/20
Global Infections: 6,259,224 Australian Infections: 7,195
Global Deaths: 373,691 Australian Deaths: 103
1/7/20
1/7/20
Global Infections: 10,795,162 Australian Infections: 7,920
Global Deaths: 518,058 Australian Deaths: 104
1/8/29
Global Infections: 17,745,673 Australian Infections: 16,905
Global Deaths: 682,197 Australian Deaths: 197
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