Blogs from Mount Surprise, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Continuing our journey along the Savannah Way, we discovered Pinnarendi Staion on WikiCamps. The station has been in the Atkinson Family for over five generations, and Ronnie and his wife Nadine, have opened up a section of the property for farm stays. The property is 1,571 hectares of land, and sits on top of the Great Dividing Range at an altitude of 750 metres, with around 325v hectares of cleared pasture. There are both powered and non powered sites, however, the reason we especially wanted to stay here was for the wood fired pizzas. Ronnie is very capable and built his own wood fired pizza oven, along with a large shed where guests can eat from the attached cafe. The food served up by Nadine and her assistants is first class for an out of the ... read more

In planning our journey across the Savannah Way, we followed the route on WikiCamps, and then looked at all the places to stay and of interest. One planned stay intrigued us, and that was the Talaroo Hot Springs, which was proudly owned and operated by the Ewamian Aboriginal Corporation. They acquired the 31,500 hectare property following a Native Title Determination in 2013, and indigenous rangers have managed the property since that time. We wanted to support this venture for the Ewamian people on their own country, particularly after hearing of many examples of the shocking treatment of indigenous inhabitants of the land as it was opened up by European settlers. The facilities were great, with a powered and water caravan site, close to hot showers and toilets. There was a great cafe at Reception, where the ... read more

We headed off from Townsville to Undara Lava tubes on Thursday before Easter. Travelled west from Townsville on the Harvey's Range road. First stop was Greenvale, not very exciting but very clean loos at the servo. Had a bite of lunch at The Lynd junction. Fuel was fairly reasonably priced and not too different from Townsville. Road was very busy with others heading off for a camping weekend like we were. After almost 5 hours we pulled into the Lava Tubes resort. We had booked a powered site at $18 per person. Perhaps a little expensive by camping standards especially as we only used the power for the Waeco and to recharge the phones. On Fridau morning we did the half day tour. it was OK but again $100per person which could be seen as being ... read more

DAY 281 The last time I looked at my watch it was 6.40 and it was now 7.30! Moving day again, so we need to get up and get on with things. I suggested that we have cereal for breakfast, but they were still in the trailer and as were packing up neither of us could be bothered to retrieve them from the trailer so the easiest thing to do was boiled eggs. It would not be too long before I regretted that decision. We sat down to eat, the day was already hot, we both had a cup of tea on the go, the eggs looked and tasted fine, unusually they had not cracked in the boiling water though so when I took them out they were intact (If I was at home I ... read more

DAY 279 The day starts with bright sunlight streaming through the mosquito netting, I get out of bed to go and wash and get ready for the morning. This morning part of Darryl and Sarah’s plan was to move on, however when I wandered over, Darryl kindly made a cup of tea, we find out that they have decided to stay another day, yippee! We have been having such a laugh with them it would be a shame to split up the team so soon, so a relaxing day around camp was in order. At 8.00 Sarah and I wandered down to reception to find out if we can book in again, we are fortunate the two sites we have are free so we are booked in for another night. Andy and I may need to ... read more