Normanton and Karumba

31st July 2016

Long drive from Croyden to Normanton not much to see, lots of bush and the odd kangaroo. Decided to drive on to Karumba, another 72km.  Lots of brolgas along the way.

Karumba was packed with caravanners.  Five parks and they were all bursting at the seams.  Gave up trying to get a spot and pulled into a day park right on the beach. Stopped for lunch overlooking the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Nice spot for lunch

Drove the 72km back to Normanton and checked into a local caravan park for the night.
Took a drive around town (it took 5 minutes!) and got a few pics.

Replica of the largest croc caught in this area.

Apparently the "Purple Pub" rocks in Normanton

Still heading west

30 July 2016

Got away early from Cobbold Gorge and stopped in to Forsayth for a look. Sleepy little town with lots of gold prospecting history.

Stopped again in Georgetown for breakfast on the river.

Drove for a couple of hours and decided to stay overnight in Croyden.  Interesting town with lots of historic buildings.  We were lucky enough to have a camp draft happening just out of town.  It was great to watch the horses working the cattle.

Heading west

27th July 2016

Left Atherton late morning after topping up supplies, drove south west through Ravenshoe towards Mt Surprise. We found a great camp at Pinnarendi Station.  Very basic but well off the road.  We had to drive through to cattle gates to get to the station home.  The young couple there are just in the process of getting a van park set up.  Nice spot to camp for only $10 p/n.

Local residents

28th July 2016

Peaceful night, woke to the rooster crowing.  Drove west through Mt Surprise to Georgetown.  Here we turned south driving 90kms, mostly corragated dirt, to Cobbold Gorge via Forsayth. Well worth the drive in, beautiful bush setting.  We booked for two nights, doing the Gorge tour tomorrow morning.

Unpowered camping area Cobbold Gorge

29th July 2016

Off on the Gorge tour this morning.  Got picked up at 10am in a large 4wd bus and drove 4kms out to the gorge.  We did a 2.5km walk with a guide showing us various bush tucker then back down to the gorge for the boat trip.  It was brilliant, beautiful sandstone cliffs on either side of the boat, at times we could touch both sides of the gorge as it was so narrow. Didn't see any crocs, but they were there.

Our guide

Waterfalls and wildlife

24th July 2016

Day off site seeing today.  We were supposed to bowl this afternoon but Ferg did something to his back and couldn't move.  It came good eventually.  The possums visited us again this evening.

25th July 2016

Did the Waterfall Circuit today south of Millaa Millaa.  Called into Ellinjaa Falls, Zillie Falls and Millaa Millaa Falls then took the scenic route back to Atherton via Mt Hypipamee National Park.

Ellinjaa Falls

Millaa Millaa Falls

 26th July 2016

Visited Hasties Swamp Wetlands just south of Atherton this morning.  Wow, what a magnificent spot.  It was teaming with birds.  There was a two story hide right on the edge of the water, great place to take pics.

Whistling Duck

Magpie Geese

And this is what I do while Ferg takes all the bird pics!

Atherton

22 July 2016

Moved on from the Rodeo grounds this morning, just too crowded for us.  We like our open spaces.  Tried Malanda Caravan Park but that was too muddy and packed with caravans.  We finally found a brand new park just out of Atherton run by a local pumpkin farmer.  It is wonderful, tucked at the back of the property right on the Barron River.  A hidden gem that hardly anyone knows about, but unfortunately the word of mouth is travelling fast and more vans are arriving each day.  Went for a game of bowls at the Atherton Bowls Club this afternoon.  Great undercover synthetic green, we even managed to get runner up.

Bonadios RV & Nature Park

23 July 2016

Ferg was up early this morning for a walk along the river.  Got some great shots of the resident platypus.

Off to Yungaburra Markets early to get some local fruit and veges.  It's a very big market with lots of unusual craft stalls and yummy food.

Yungaburra Market

After the markets we drove right around Lake Tineroo.  It took us a couple of hours as the dirt road was full of very large pot holes.  The lake is down to 50% capacity at the moment.  We saw some great camps beside the water but decided it wasn't worth towing the van in over all the pot holes.

Lake Tineroo

Stopped off at a giant fig tree on the way home.















Went for another walk along the river in the afternoon, saw a large water python swimming across the river, but no platypus.  We had happy hour around the big camp fire then some of the locals called in for a visit. There were lots of possums and a few timid paddymelons.

Paddymelon

Mareeba sunshine

20th July 2016

Left Ingham today on the search for some sunshine.  Drove through Cardwell, Innisfail and up to the Atherton Tablelands.  Stopped at one of favourite places, Henrietta Creek for lunch but it was still raining. Onwards through Malanda, Atherton and finally arrived into sunny Mareeba.  Booked into the Rodeo grounds with hundreds of other vans, plenty of room though.

Mareeba Rodeo Grounds

21st July 2016

Took a drive to Kuranda this morning to visit the Barron Falls.  There was a lovely canopy tree walk down to the lookout.  It was a misty morning with clouds drifting through the valley in front of the falls.

Barron Falls

On the way back to Mareeba we visited the Emerald Creek Falls.  Quite a strenuous walk up to the falls but worth every step.

Emerald Creek Falls

Had a great game of bowls at the Mareeba Bowls Club this afternoon.