Still Queensland – further inland

We move further into the Queensland outback.

We tour the Cobbold Gorge.

Queensland outback
Our guide
Queensland outback
Queensland outback

As at the Undara lava tubes, the original owners/lessors  of the property struck a deal with the government to develop natural attractions in return for giving over large parts of their property to become parkland. Tourism is probably a safer bet than cattle raising out here.

Queensland outback
Maria and the Cobbold Gorge
Queensland outback
Paperbark
Queensland outback
Cobbold Gorge
Queensland outback
Cobbold Gorge
Queensland outback
Cobbold Gorge

We overnight in the tiny hamlet of Georgetown. Evening brings a flock of galahs in  the wires overhead.

Queensland outback
The din is indescribable

On the road east next day. In some places, the highway narrows to a single lane. Approaching vehicles both move half onto the gravel.

Queensland outback
Game of ‘chicken’, anyone?

Maria is really tickled by these signs in particular.

Queensland outback
Beware of hitting gigantic cattle

We stop for lunch in Croydon, another former mining centre.

Queensland outback
Everyone meets at the Club Hotel

Our orders of fish and chips contain enormous hunks of barramundi.

Queensland outback
Pub lunch

We continue to Normanton. From there to Karumba Point, on the Gulf of Carpentaria.

The road between Normanton and Point Karumba is flat as a pancake.

Flat earth society

We see many Brolga cranes, but as soon as we stop to take a photo, they take off.

Behind the caravan park are mobs of wallabies. Some of them like coming up to the fence to study the humans inside.

Queensland outback
Queensland outback

Karumba Point has a wonderful, end-of-the-world feel to it.

Queensland outback
¡Ay, Karumba!

It’s a popular thing here to gather at the shore and watch the sun go down.

Queensland outback
When in Rome…
Queensland outback
Some impromptu beach art
Queensland outback
Getting ready for a sundowner
Queensland outback
Sun sinks into the Gulf of Carpentaria

We head south down the Matilda Highway to Cloncurry.

Queensland outback
Cloncurry rock formation

Sight or Insight of the Day – Queensland outback

In the nearly four decades since I was last here, colloquial Australian English has evolved into a broad-vowelled dialect that can be hard for outsiders to decipher. I’m reminded of an episode in one of Paul Theroux’s books in which he shares a compartment on an Indian train with a group of young locals. It takes ten minutes for him to realize that the group is actually conversing in English.

For example, we go on a mine tour in Mt. Isa. At the end, Maria asks me ‘What’s a ‘fayday’? She tells me the guide has repeatedly instructed participants not to forget our ‘faydays’ before we leave.

Eventually we learn that the word is ‘photos‘: everyone gets a photo of themselves taken at the mine entrance.

 

 

Queensland interior

From Cairns, we make plans to head for the Queensland interior. We drive north to Port Douglas.

Queensland interior
James Cook Highway, between Cairns and Port Douglas

Port Douglas is too crowded for us. This must be peak season for visitors.  We decide to travel a bit further north to Mossman.

Before we leave PD, we sample some meat pies for lunch. One is crocodile pie and one is kangaroo pie. The crust is stamped accordingly.

Queensland interior
Neither taste like chicken

Mossman is much less frenzied. We visit the Mossman Gorge.

Queensland interior
Bridge over the Mossman River
Queensland interior
Roots, rock, reggae

Back at the interpretation centre, we spot this enormous spider. I ask Maria to put her hand near it for comparison. She obliges.

Queensland interior
Big-ass spider

On the other side of a mountain range, the land changes from rain forest to fertile farmland. We pass though patches of forest with signs to look out for Lumholtz’s tree-kangaroos. We don’t see any, though.

Queensland interior
Hill and dale

It doesn’t take long for the terrain to become Outback-y. This is the track we take to the Kalkani Crater.

Queensland interior
Queensland interior

We climb to the crater’s rim

Queensland interior
View of Matilda far below in the parking lot.

There are wallabies around the trail.

Queensland interior
The aptly-named Pretty-faced wallaby

We camp in Undara Lodge. We awake to two galahs squawking overhead.

Queensland interior
A galah event

The hawk flying by at the same moment was a happy accident.

Undara is known for its lava tubes.

Queensland interior
Lava tube
Queensland interior
At the mouth of a lava tube
Queensland interior
The guide points out bats

We carry on to the remote hamlet of Einasleigh. Lots of red dirt, like Prince Edward Island.

Queensland interior
…or like  Prince Edward Island with eucalyptus trees

We have lunch and a beer at Einasleigh’s sole hotel.

Queensland interior
The only place in town

Surprisingly, the young woman behind the bar is from Boston. The many people in Australia with work visas are encouraged to work at least three months in remote locations.

The draw here is the Copperfield Gorge.

Queensland interior
Maria and the Copperfield Gorge
Queensland interior
Rock formation
Queensland interior
Copperfield Gorge

Sight or Insight of the Day – Queensland interior

A guide tells us that the thousands of pensioners – ‘grey nomads’ – traveling around Australia these days are improving the economy of the outback. They actually pay money for things like guided tours and stay in nicer resorts. This in turn creates jobs for locals so everybody doesn’t pack their tents and move to Sydney or Melbourne. Nice to know that the boomer generation is good for something.

Cairns

We have a good time in Cairns (which seems to be pronounced ‘Cains‘ – like the economist.) Getting here is fun, too.

(Note: because WiFi is difficult to come across in Australia – unless there’s something we’re missing – we’re a bit late in our blog entries. We’re already halfway across Queensland. To avoid confusion, we’re adding posts as WiFi becomes available. So we may be a week or two behind.)

Cairns
Our last day in Horseshoe Bay

Some of the inhabitants of our caravan park have a sense of humour.

Cairns
Sign of the times

We continue up the coast to Cairns. This is the beach at Flying Fish point.

Cairns
Not a croc in sight
Cairns
Flying Fish Point, near Innisfail

This is typical countryside in the north of Queensland. Lots of sugarcane. Sweet!

Cairns
En route to Cairns

Like most places in this part of Queensland,there are crocodiles everywhere.

Cairns
‘Crocodile attacks may cause injury’ D’ya think?

Cairns boasts a flashy new aquarium.

Cairns
A pride of lion-fish
Cairns
Stonefish – highly venomous, and no great beauty
Cairns
Newborn epaulette sharks, looking a lot like salamanders
Cairns
Seahorse

I remember Cairns as being rougher and more frontier-like. Now it’s a very civilized place.

Cairns
The Lagoon, a watery playground on the Esplanade

We visit the excellent Botanical Gardens.

Cairns
Giant houseplant

In the conservatory is a beautiful selection of orchids.

Cairns
Orchids

Of course, most people come here for some sort of Great Barrier Reef experience. We book a snorkeling tour for the day.

Cairns
Steaming out of Cairns

Among the youthful, international crew is a professional underwater photographer. She does a good job of snapping GoPro-deprived punters like us.

Cairns
Two marine mammals
Cairns
Waving? Or drowning?
Cairns
Spot the Nemo fish

The experience is very unlike our idyllic snorkels in the Togian Islands. There, the water was like glass. The sea was calm, with a temperature like bathwater. The coral was spectacular, the fish teeming. In the two locations we visit  here, the sea is much rougher than we expect. The water is kind of cloudy. And cold. We’re tossed around like corks. I’m sure there are many places in the thousand-plus kilometers of the Great Barrier Reef with amazing snorkeling; we’re happy to have had our time in the Togian Islands.

Still, it’s a grand day out.

Cairns
Reef ahoy

We’re happy we went to the aquarium in Cairns, too. Like reef viewing from the comfort of dry land.

Cairns
Maria models her new swimsuit

We enjoy a ride in a glass-bottom boat – our first.

Cairns
Giant clam-shell through the glass-bottom boat

This is our non-glass bottom boat.

Cairns
Our ride

Sight or Insight of the Day – Cairns

In our earlier travels, several times we find ourselves near famous whale-watching locales, such as Husavik, Iceland, and Hermanus, South Africa. We ask each other if we want to go watch whales and inexplicably say ‘Meh… no thanks.’

Despite being jaded cosmopolitans, we’re pretty chuffed when, on the return trip, the captain announces our boat is slowing down because there’s a whale between us and another vessel.

Cairns
Thar she blows!

Our resident marine biologist – yes, our boat had one – informs us it’s a juvenile humpback whale.

Cairns
Curious whale – enriched humans

Now that’s cool!

Brisbane & up the Queensland coast

Brisbane is delightful.  I didn’t even stop here in 1979-80: at the time, Queensland was under the conservative Bjelke-Petersen regime, and Brisbane was probably the un-hippest city in Australia.

How times change. Brisbane is a thriving, forward-looking kind of place.

Queensland
On the Brisbane River

We visit the Queensland Art Gallery. It’s one of the best we’ve ever been to. And we’ve been to lots of galleries around the world.

Queensland
QAG

I love this work, Under the Jacaranda.

Queensland
Cleanup in gallery 11!

I especially like the whimsical touch of the real jacaranda blossoms on the floor under the painting.

Lots of native art as well.
Queensland
Poles apart
Queensland
Me, a loud shirt, and a Brisbane city square
Queensland
Maria and some kangaroos made from car parts…
Queensland
…and the Real Thing
You can call me ‘Joey’.

We drive up the coast to Noosa Heads. This is too overcrowded for us. We continue to less populated beaches.

Queensland
Palmerston Cove

Many are nearly deserted – one blessing of living in a sparsely-populated land.

Queensland
Palmerston Cove

We follow the advice of a man we meet in a caravan park, who suggests a few picturesque places to stay on our way north.

Rather than spend every day driving, we find a spot we like and spend a few nights there and relax during the day.

Queensland
Horseshoe Bay

Still, driving is  fun. We observe the scenery. We listen to ABC while we drive. It’s a lot like listening to the CBC. (Except for the Australian accent, of course.)

Queensland
Horseshoe Bay

It’s advised to swim beneath a pair of yellow and red flags due to ‘marine stingers‘.

This is enough to keep me out of the water for the duration. Their effects  range from ‘a slight prickle’ to ‘agonizing death’.

Doesn’t stop Maria, though.

Queensland
Horseshoe Bay

This is Horseshoe Bay, near Bowen, QLD. Bowen is famous for its mangoes (!)

Queensland
Horseshoe Bay
Queensland
Horseshoe Bay

We find that traveling in our own vehicle, we have fewer opportunities for taking photos – just because ‘a body in motion tends to remain in motion’ and all that.

Queensland
Horseshoe Bay

We enjoy staying in caravan parks. They’re clean and quiet. The inhabitants are usually pensioners escaping the southern winter.

Queensland
Horseshoe Bay

Everyone is extremely friendly. We conjecture a drinking game where you have to down a shot of Bundaberg rum every time someone says ‘no worries’; we’d be legless by midmorning.

Sight or Insight of the Day – Queensland

Australia is a birdwatcher’s paradise. Everywhere we go are parakeets, kookaburras, and other avian exotica. (This clearly marks us out as tourists, that we think of parakeets and kookaburras as ‘exotic’.)

For the first time ever, we actually pay for an iPhone app: Morecombe and Stewart’s Birds of Australia.

Going Mobile – Sydney to Brisbane – heading north

It’s official. We are going mobile.

We pick up our van –  who we name ‘Matilda’ – in Caringbah, in the south of Sydney. This means that after not driving for eight months, I now have to pilot a right-hand drive vehicle with a manual shift on the left through the entire length of Sydney to get us north of the harbour.

Sydney to Brisbane
Maria and Matilda

Slightly nerve-wracking, but we survive.

We stay in campgrounds along the way. The blog may not get such regular updates; not every campground has WiFi (unlike nearly every cheap guesthouse in Southeast Asia.)

Sydney to Brisbane
Rural New South Wales

We get lost a few times when we stray from the motorway.

Sydney to Brisbane
Holding the wheel in my vice-like grip

After not getting very far the first few days while we provision Matilda, we reach the Queensland border and the chill goes out of the air.

Sydney to Brisbane
Along the Clarence River

Australia is well set up for camping. The sites we’ve been to so far are a delight.

Going Mobile
Home sweet home

The scenery is nice, too. I enjoy long-distance driving.

Interestingly, the first time we turn on the radio, we hear a story of how ‘Bluesfest in Ottawa, Canada’ is threatened by the presence of a killdeer nest. Everything’s connected.

Sydney to Brisbane
Sydney to Brisbane

Happy Canada Day, everyone!

Going Mobile
– courtesy of Canadian World Domination

Sight or Insight of the Day – Going Mobile

Driving along outside Port Macquarie, we spot a sign: ‘Want to pet a koala?’ I can’t slam on the brakes fast enough.

We feed wallabies and kangaroos.

going mobile
Maria dispenses the ‘roo chow

going mobile

They are surprisingly gentle and delicate creatures

going mobile
Wallaby snacks

I can cross ‘pet a koala’ off my bucket list.

going mobile
‘Stony’, a koala of great girth
going mobile
The cuteness factor of koalas is off the charts