Luxury, Luxury, Luxury ...........  It was then off to our luxurious Quest Resort in Port Douglas for two nights  where we relaxed around the pool, and wined and dined at night.   Just nice to feel totally clean and refreshed again.  It really was a fantastic gift idea from our friends in Melbourne and Ballarat.  Thank you very much.

As Willie Say's ... 'On the Road Again' .......  On Saturday 17 July it was time to move onto the next part of our trip which was through the Atherton Tablelands via the Rex Range Road, a scenic drive with good coastal views via Mt. Molloy and Mareeba which is a rich agriculture and cattle area in the Tablelands.  A visit to Lake Barrine, an extinct volcanic crater, filled with crystal clear water and surrounded with dense tropical rainforest over 7000 years old.

It was then onto Mt. Surprise which consists of the local pub, a cafe and two caravan parks.  We stayed at the Mt. Surprise Caravan Park which had just won lst prize in the area's best  garden.  We're not sure how many were in the competition.  There are only about 200 people living in Mt. Surprise, well known for its gem and fossicking areas.  A visit the next day to the Undara Lava Tubes was very interesting.  Our guide was a typical FNQueenslander, every second sentence ending in "eh mate".  These lava tubes were formed 190,000 years ago when Undara erupted and fountains of lava covered the land and filled the rivers.  The air cooled the surface but underneath the lava still flowed out the far end of the tubes leaving hollow tunnels hidden underground.
 

The photo on the right is of the Einasleigh River between Mt Surprise and Georgetown.  Rivers with water flowing is rare in this part of Queensland and this was an unexpected and beautiful sight.
 

An afternoon visit to Talaroo Hot Springs saw Rob and I spending time relaxing in the 35 degrees mineral springs water which flows naturally into a manmade pool.  It is supposed to be good for aches and pains.  We're not sure about that but we definitely came out looking like prunes and feeling very very clean.

Barra & Chips.......    Back in the 4 WD, it was then off to reach Karumba for the barramundi and the famous gulf sunset.  The road via Georgetown, Croydon and onto Normanton was one straight stretch of bitumen (most of the way, except for some roadworks being completed) and single lane most of the way.  This meant that you pulled over and stopped for the huge road trains and pull over and slowed down for all other oncoming traffic. Rule No. 1 of Outback Touring.   Road Trains have right of way even when Road Trains don't have right of way. It didn't stop another two cracks in the windscreen from flying stones.  This brings the total to four so far.  Normanton was 390 kms from Mt. Surprise and this town is big compared to others.  Population of 1200 people with a supermarket not quite as big as Coles, but full of character, three pubs, a post office, and actually quite a few of other facilities available.  We stayed the night on the banks of the Walker Creek, 40 kms out of Karumba.  Next day was onto Karumba where caravan sites are at a premium.  We fortunately had booked ahead and were very lucky to secure a powered site and not a temporary unpowered site.

Here all the mad crazy fisherman spend up to two months in the caravan park enjoying the best fishing spot in Australia.  So they say.  Some of them come year after year just to fish while their wives have fun line dancing on Wednesday mornings, craft afternoons on Thursday, spit roasts on Fridays and happy hour every night.  It was quite windy for the three days we were there, so not as many fish were being caught.

We had the best barramundi and chips that we have every had so far at Ash's Fish and Chip Shop in Karumba.  It is well known and for $4.00 you get a huge piece of barramundi and chips.  A must is a visit to the Sunset Tavern which right on the beach.  A drink from the bar and a good seat at 6.00pm (or earlier) and you can watch the most brilliant sunset.  Each night can be different depending on the amount of cloud there is. We watched one sunset with no cloud, but just the silouhette of a brolga standing in the water, then the next night there was the scattered cloud which gave off beautiful colours.

A highlight of Karumba was a scenic flight over the surrounding area of Karumba on the Gulf of Carpentaria  with a couple  Pam and John  who we had met in Cape York.  The land is so desolate with mud flats, some mangroves on the edges of the river systems and the odd vegetation of gums and scrub.

Burke & Wills Roadhouse .................  A farewell happy hour with some friends, saw us leave the next morning for the 271kms drive to Burke and Wills Roadhouse on an even more straighter stretch of road, but this time no towns in between, only cattle and a few horses crossing the road or grazing on the land.   A lot of dead kangaroos and cattle on the side of the road obviously hit by the road trains at night.

Burke & Wills Roadhouse appears out of nowhere.  It has a meals eating area, inside and outside and a caravan and camp ground with showers and toilets.  That's it.  We stayed there the night before setting out for our camping expedition to the Gregory River.  One of the "grey nomads" that we had met along the way, told us about this magic spot.  Rule No. 2 of Outback Touring.   The best spots to camp are not on any maps.   This was just a brilliant site, right on the banks of the Gregory river, surrounded by paper bark gums, palms and water reeds with the running water rippling through.  There were no other people around which was just wonderful.  This is location is best kept a secret.  The next day we travelled onto Adels Grove just 10 kms from Lawn Hill National Park.

Lawn Hill National Park.........   Adels Grove has a number of bush camping sites available and all set up in individually with your own tap and fireplace  It is easy to reach Lawn Hill National Park from here.  The National Park is quite spectacular.  We walked the Island Circuit which took you along the top of the gorge.  There were some fantastic views looking down onto the gorge, but the highlight is definitely the canoes that can be hired and enables you to paddle up the lower gorge.  The scenery is superb.  The magnificent gigantic walls of the gorge and the colours make it well worthwhile paying $16 for two hours.  A definite must on anybody's itinerary.

Find this place on a map........   From Adels Grove we heard of Kingfisher Camp.  To reach this destination meant travelling on a 4 WD track for a good two hours.  The track had plenty of corrugations, bull dust and rocks and stones, through many station gates, one river crossing (about 600 mm deep) and a number of dry creek crossings.  We finally reached Bowthorn Station (which is on the map) and here we had scones and tea (called Smoko) with the owner in her kitchen.  She is a writer (Kerry McGinnis) and will be appearing in the September issue of the Woman's Weekly.  It was so interesting to hear about her life and how they survive in such a remote area of Australia.  The station is run by the family comprising of two sisters and brother and their families.  They also run the Kingfisher Camp which was another hour to reach.  I think their mileage was a little out but what's it matter in such remote areas.  Kingfisher Camp is on the banks of the Nicholson River and on the border of Queensland and Northern Territory.  Quite a good camp ground, well grassed all with their own camp fires.

In Leichhardt's Footsteps ...............   The next day saw us decide to travel to Burketown.  Seeing we were so far north and so close to it.  It was 40 kms of 4 WD track to the Great Top Road, an unsealed road which passed through the aboriginal town of Doomadgee.  A very interesting town with good housing provided,   a court house, police compound, school, hospital and community centre.  The next stop was Burketown with the most fascinating pub where we just had to stop for a beer and a counter lunch, with the locals who were watching the Midday Movie on the telly - the movie was Puberty Blues.   The funny thing was that all the locals were silent watching the movie.  It was then onto Burke and Wills Roadhouse and more stretches of dirt roads.  But we did stop at the beautiful Leichhardt River and the Leichhardt Falls.  The falls were not running but in the wet season it must be spectacular sight.  The river is surrounded by rock gorges and the river banks are pure soft sand.  Another place to mark on the map to visit.  We made our way back to Burke and Wills Roadhouse for the night.

We were fortunate enough to make contact with Richard and Judy Makim who own a 170,000 acre cattle station south east of Burke & Wills Roadhouse.  We travelled 2 1/2 hours on fairly good gravel roads to visit them and experience a little bit of life on a cattle station.  They have 10,000 cattle and Richard gave us the time to drive us to different areas of the property and explained how things work, including their cattle breeding.  Their home is made of mud bricks with 4 metre wide verandahs.  There is one main block which consists of a large lounge/dining/family room area and huge kitchen with an office, main bedroom and bathroom.  Very tastefully decorated.  Another mud brick building consists of three bedrooms all with ensuites and a third section consists of two more bedrooms, a large working kitchen, laundry, storage rooms  and school room which was used by Judy and her governess to teach their seven children when they were young  The centre garden is full of ferns and trees and blends in with the surrounds.  They are very busy people but they found the time look after us during our visit.  We enjoyed our stay immensely.

Ride em Cowboy eh!!!!!!!!!!!!!      The next day it was back to Burke & Wills Roadhouse to pick up the caravan and say goodbye to Julia (Richard's sister) and Peter and time then to move on to Cloncurry 182 kms south of Burke and Wills Roadhouse.  To be honest there is not a lot at Cloncurry.   Thank goodness for the Cloncurry Merry Muster rodeo which was being held over the weekend.  This is held annually.  On Saturday morning saw Rob and I and our West Australian friends up bright and early and ready for the fun filled events that commenced at 9.00 am at the showgrounds.  There was Bronco Rides, Bull Rides, Team Roping  and everybody was dressed up in their big buckle belts, jeans, western shirts and the stockmans hat.  It turned out to be a very interesting morning.

It's Mine, Mine, Mine .......Then it was onto Mt. Isa 171kms down the track.  The Mt. Isa mine is one of the largest underground mines in the world and is the world's biggest producer of copper and zinc. There are 3,500 people working at the mine with 1,000 of them actually working underground.   The School of the Air operates from Mt. Isa.  The school is one of seven providing education for preschool students up to Year 10.  A tour through the school gives a behind the scenes appreciation of the organization required to run a school without classrooms.  Quite fascinating.  The other tourist attraction is the Royal Flying Doctor Service which has operated from Mt. Isa since 1964 and covers 500,000 square miles and has a population of 40,000 people.  The pilots must be capable of landing $3 million flying intensive care units on anything from dirt strips and roads to paddocks.

We are now about to leave Queensland and travel into the Northern Territory.  Our next main stop will be Katherine which is approximately 1,000 kms up the road.  From there we will travel onto Darwin, and hopefully will reach there the beginning of September.