Gulf Country

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Camooweal Caves NP
Day 166 -167
August 7/8

Having traveled pretty hard over the preceding few weeks a nice quiet spot and a chance to get the kids back into school mode before their grandparents visited us in Cairns was exactly what was required. So we were happy to stay for a couple of days and catch up - well I don’t know whether Brayden and Rhiannon were as happy with the prospect of two reasonably full school days but they were not given the choice by the principal and teacher of the Panting home school! They will find it hard to get back into a normal school routine of 9-3 methinks!

Visited what we could of the caves but as these were formed from sinkholes access into them is for budding speleologists only with all the right gear. All we could see was the entrance only descending into a black hole. Apparently there are quite a few caves all over the Barkly Tableland (.

Went for a bit of a paddle on Nowranie Creek, or its billabong, and it extends for about a kilometre up from our camp before it dries out. Nice little paddle though and good to be able to get our kayaks off the trailer and actually use them without worrying about being the next meal for a saltwater crocodile! (a somewhat difficult concept to come to grips with - that us humans are not necessarily number one top dog on the food chain). They kayaks also came in handy when collecting firewood - stay with me here - we paddled up the billabong a bit to an area where a whole swag of wood was available and we cut it up and put it on the kayaks and paddled back to camp. Beats carrying it bit by bit through the scrub.

Camooweal Caves NP - Riversleigh / Miyumba Camp
Day 168
Thursday, August 9, 2007

We had decided to break camp and move on after making this little area home for a few days. First though, a little more journal writing for the kids and for myself…almost seems like work this journal/diary travelblog thing!!! (but worth its weight in gold in years to come no doubt). After the majority of packing had been completed we sent Brayden off on a bit of a bike ride along the one track and told him we’d catch up. Well it took us a little longer to finish up as we (well me really if truth be known) reorganized a couple of things, so by the time we had caught up with our budding Lance Armstrong he was 10.5km along the rough, rocky track and had been waiting under the shade of a tree for a while wondering where we had got to! Good effort on that road - he needs to lose some energy though if we are going to sit in a car for a while.

Arrived in Camooweal to do some basic shopping and $80 odd dollars later, with not a lot to show for it, we walked out of the General store cum Post Office cum Library cum coffee shop cum telephone exchange. Seen most of the business in Camooweal since 1947 at least. Interesting to be here given that many of the stations in the west of the NT used to alternately drove their cattle to either here or Wyndham in WA. Pretty long walk either way!!!

Whilst we went on the back route into Riversleigh / Lawn Hill it was still going to be 230km of driving which we weren’t really aware of - didn’t seem that far from our previous cursory examinations of the map! Shows you our detailed planning - hardly any sometimes. Still that’s a stress free way of traveling if time isn’t necessarily of the essence. Stress free that is, as long as you don’t run out of food, fuel or, heaven forbid, wine and beer! We did however pre book our campsite at Lawn Hill whilst in Camooweal - cost us about $15 in phone call charges whilst the lady on the end of the line had to repeat everything that was said and had to read out all the conditions of booking - we will try the online system next time. Indicative of population and popularity I guess - having to have a booking system - although this is still the tail end of the principal tourist season I guess.

The first section of road , headed by a large sign saying,

Caravans NOT Recommended


was in great nick and we saw one other vehicle towing a beefed up van. The road degenerated once on the main section towards Gregory Downs but we saw only three other vehicles traveling in the opposite direction. It is interesting to travel across the big black soil plains that you don’t see in WA. You always hear tell of them turning to mush at the mere hint of rain and along the margins of the roads you see great ruts - almost permanent now - from where the cattle trucks have gone through when a bit of rain has been about and churned up the road.

We decided to park up at the site just south of the Riversleigh fossil location as it was getting later in the day and we were driving directly into the sun on dusk - not a great combination for animal strike /panel damage! After a few creek crossings (water woo hoo / kids were happy) we found the camp and we were the only occupants - great! No fires though throughout the whole park though otherwise, as the sign says, it attracts 165penalty units (what?!?!)….this is apparently equivalent to $12,375 or a $375 on the spot fine! So we ditched the wood we had dutifully collected and carried from outside the park - bummer.

After setting up we rode back down to the river, which was a nice temperature, and gave the bikes a good swim (they are that crusty with dust the gears/wheels would only turn accompanied by noises usually associated with pending mechanical failure) closely followed by ourselves to clean up. The river crossing is quite scenic with a grove of palms and eucalypts and a huge billabong which then feeds into a small dropoff where the river crosses the road - or vice versa. Anyway we jumped in - with clothes on so as to do the washing - and suitably refreshed and cleansed we headed back to camp. So ends another day.

Miyumba Camp - Riversleigh fossil site - Lawn Hill NP
Day 169
Friday, August 10, 2007

With some overdue maintenance to be done on the old trailer and no-one to say you cant do maintenance here (as opposed to most parks where you are not allowed) it seemed like a good time tocomplete the job here. Luckily they were still in pretty good nick with the seals still intact and no dust water had got in. Repacked and retightened we headed off to the fossil site (now a world heritage area along with Naracoorte in south east SA ). Wasn’t a great deal to see per se but we did get to see the bones of a “thunderbird” a 250- 350kg 2.5m tall bird looking not unlike an emu on steroids. So thunderbirds aren’t just little wooden puppets saving the world but the real McCoy.Thunderbirds ARE go!!! After a quick walk around the designated site we hopped back into the now very dusty and squeaky Tojo and headed to the infamous Lawn Hill NP - a favourite on the tourist circuit….although not via the route we took. Once there we set up on a site adjacent to the river and took the kayaks off and went for a paddle.

The pandanus fringed river led to a gorge about 1km upstream and thence to large Tufa structures creating a multitude of small 1.5 - 2m high waterfalls across the river. We stopped here and had a swim and a play around in the waterfalls - very nice. It was nice to be able to swim in water without it being freezing cold.

Amanda and the kids decided to try and swim part of the 1.5km back to the camp area. Kids got a fair way before starting to get cold. By that stage we were in the shadow of the gorge and with a slight wind it was quite cold (all things being relative). We paddled out of the gorge to the sound of Rhiannon’s teeth chattering away as she was getting very cold. Finally got into some sun and , like a lizard on a rock, we stayed there in th sun until Rhiannon’s teeth were no longer making a chattering noise and her goosebumps disappeared.

With exercise done for the day everyone was tuckered out and so early to bed.

Lawn Hill NP
Day 170/171
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Sunday, August 12, 2007

Spent an enjoyable and relaxing couple of days at lawn Hill National Park paddling and swimming in the gorge and up to the waterfalls 1.5km further up the gorge. The waterfalls have been created by the formation of tufa -a calcium carbonate deposit which forms as a result of a chemical reaction with air as the lime rich waters cascade over rocks / tree roots and any other obstruction in the watercourse.The waters are quite nice - cool, but not cold, and you can muck around at the base of one of the waterfalls in the bubbly water….a bit like a spa really all for free, other than a bit of effort to get there. There was a canoe hire place there ($15/hr 2 person canoe or $20/hr 3 person) so there was always a rush of activity in the morning and early afternoon. As we ha dour own kayaks we would wander up a bit later and most of the hire canoeists were already on their way back so we would usually end up with the place to ourselves for the majority of the time. The afternoon light through the gorge was really quite special - although I,m sure our photos just wont do it justice.

Went on a few of the walks (not all as you have to leave something to come back to!) up on the prominent “Island Stack” an area of rock above the lower gorge which gives a good vista around the river system. The tentacles of green lush vegetation spearing off through the red rocks providing a stark contrast to the sparse, dry, brown vegetation in the surrounding countryside. Its no wonder that the remnants of Aboriginal occupation date back almost 17,000 years or more. Why would you leave when there would have been an amazing food source, shelter (some caves) and water supply right there. The shell middens found in and around some of the caves and art sites are testament to this.
Part of the walk winds its way through the palm/melaleuca/cadjeput/paperbark/eucalypt forest and is nice and cool - a little microcosm of serenity in a larger hot, dry, dusty and harsh environment.

Lawn Hill NP - Adels Grove - Lawn Hill Station - Bowthorn Station - Kingfisher Camp.
Day 172
Monday, August 13, 2007

Completed another of the walks out to the main art site - the wild dog dreaming. This appears to have been the main area of habitation for the Waanyi people of the area. Not a lot of information on them or their use of the area now encompassed by the park unfortunately. This is apparently in progress with some interpretive signs being made. Its interesting though that the Rainbow Serpent appears here under the guise of a different name - “Boodjamulla” (from which the park now takes its name). All this adds credence to the ‘song lines’ in aboriginal culture with the rainbow serpent seemingly the main entity of formation of rivers and creek systems and a unifying element between different aboriginal groups. For example in Jawoyn country around Kakadu it was “Bulong”, in the south west of WA it is the “Wagyl”. Maybe there is more to the dreamtime stories than we think!!!

From Lawn Hill we traveled the back route to a place called Kingfisher Camp(KFC) via station tracks, thru Lawn Hill and Bowthorn Stations. Saw a little more traffic than expected - although the bulk of this was related to a party of motorcyclists on a bit of a tour with a couple of backup / support vehicles. The country was looking pretty dry all throughout the drive, although there was still quite a lot of cattle encountered so there must be more feed out there than there looks. Arrived at Kingfisher camp and were pleasantly surprised with the grassed campground with a multitude of trees, shady sites with water(from the nearby Nicholson River) and fireplaces that had actually been cleared out and weren’t full of ashes. Very nice.

Went for a quick little paddle on the river / billabong / waterhole which, at the moment, stretches for approx 7-8km adjacent to the camp.

This idyllic little spot was unfortunately spoilt by a party of the traveling Chamberlain Tractor Club who are obviously so used to lots of noise that they couldn’t do without their three generators running continuously until near on 11:00pm. So much for the serenity. It seems such a long way to come to listen to bloody generators. Given that most people probably don’t spend more than 2 nights here there doesn’t seem to me to be any reason why you cant run on just 12volt power for 48 hours unless you are an inconsiderate !

Kingfisher Camp
Day 173
Tuesday, August 14, 2007

School day! Kids dragged their feet and took most of the day to do a minimal amount of work! All partly due to traveling hard recently I think and getting used to not having to do formalized schooling.

I had to have a tinker with our battery charger which developed a fault - again due to the corrugated roads it seems the internals have come adrift. Might be OK for caravans on the black top but 10,000kms or so on the gravel and severe roads has probably exceeded the manufacturers original product testing criteria!

Other than that a pretty slow lazy day.

Kingfisher Camp - Doomadgee - Burketown - Normanton - Karumba Point - Burke Creek Bush Camp.
Day 174
Wednesday, August 15, 2007

With a timeframe on us to be in Cairns at a certain time to meet up with “Nana and Pop” the option of staying on didn’t enter the equation so a quick pack up and gone pretty early on the road to Burketown. We traveled on back roads / station tracks for a fair while of varying quality until we eventually hit the “Savannah Way” (Broome to Cairns tourist drive). This ‘track’ was about 6 lanes wide and of highway type quality so we were able to barrel along at a fair old clip to make some miles.

Passed the aboriginal community of Doomadgee - we had originally intended to stop for fuel and a break but once there we deemed it better to continue on to Burketown. …read into that what you will. The road to Burketown was a pretty reasonable drive with the last few km on the blacktop. Burketown is a very clean and tidy place with the population, albeit small, obviously very proud of their little town. This was obvious with the amount of travelers that all stopped and had lunch at the town park.

Continued through on the road to Normanton stopping at Burke and Wills’ Camp119 where a number of blazed trees, or the remnants thereof, were still in existence from their ill fated expedition to cross the country from south to north and back again. They were so unrprepared and had such minimal experience of the country that it is probably testament to their tenacity that they made it as far as they did. But for missing their support crew at their supply depot at Cooper Creek by a mere 9 hours they may well have made it. Immortalised at least - not that that would be of great solace when staring death in the face!

Normanton has a few claims to fame not least of which is the Purple Pub but by far the biggest attraction is the replica of the largest crocodile ever shot. This fella is about 8.5m long and the lifesize replica has a mouth that would swallow you hole. It was shot by some real life crocodile Dundee ( albeit of Polish descent) in 1957. Not many other details but it would be interesting to have spoken to the guy that shot it and what his feelings were when he first saw the size of it. Wouldn’t of wanted to be cruising along in your little tinny that’s for sure!

After stocking up on a few essentials we headed for the ubiquitous Karumba Point. This was, apparently, THE place to be to watch the sun go down whilst quaffing a cleansing ale at the pub overlooking the Gulf. We arrived only half an hour or so prior to sunset and as we passed the caravan parks (2 in Karumba point) they both seemed absolutely chokkas..The story has it that a whole swag of Melbournites trek north for 4/5/6 months for their winter and return as soon as the humidity starts to rise. It was petty obvious from the setups that many people were their for a while but by geez they were shoehorned in to maximize the revenue. Having got pretty accustomed to having a fair percentage of the outback to ourselves recently a quick family conference decided on fish and chips to watch the sunset and then head off along the beef road via Dunbar station and camp off in the bush. Whilst eastern staters might like watching the sun go down over the sea it is not such a great novelty for us Sandgropers. Don’t get me wrong it was nice to see it set over the Gulf but unless you have a boat and can go out fishing it seems there is not a lot else to do in Karumba Point if you are not in with the morning tea / lunch /arvo tea / dinner clique/s - and here I reckon you might need to take a number or do your time of several yours before allowed in with the set!

Anyway we moved on and headed 100kms off into the scrub to park up next to a few waterholes on the edge of Burke Creek.

Burke Creek bush Camp - Dunbar Station - Chillagoe
Day 175
Thursday, August 16, 2007

Awoke in the morning with distant sounds of motorbikes and helicopters - and a fair few cattle milling around off in the distance. The local station was starting off on a muster and things were all starting to happen. We skedaddled pretty quick and were on the track again before 7:30am…a rare event indeed. Further along we saw the helicopter mustering from the sky rounding up all the cattle throughout the area.

At various point along the way we saw several brolgas in groups of twos and threes until we came across a gaggle/brace/multitude/whole swag /call it what you will of brolgas and there would have been at least 20 or so milling around on the side of the road. Good to see - and you wouldn’t see that along the main drag into Cairns! Also saw a great big Bungarra lazing / sunning himself along the side of the road. A good 1.5m plus I reckon and a stomach that seemed pretty filled out so he was obviously doing pretty well for himself. He let us drive up pretty close so he was pretty confident as well. The kids were pretty happy with that.

Just prior to Dunbar station and the turn off to Kowanyama Aboriginal Community the road started showing signs of rain as there were puddles everywhere.This continued for a fair way so we were lucky and just missed out on being rained upon. Kept the dust down though on the road and we made good time until just outside Chillagoe where we got stuck behind a cattle truck on a very dusty stretch of road.

Stopped off at a small section of the Chillagoe caves network called Mungana. This has a few caves that you can easily access (and some that you cant) and some Aboriginal art. A little further on and we arrived at Chillagoe itself. It seems like there is a lot to do around here but we were on the run to Cairns and so parked up just for the night.

Chillagoe - Almaden - Dimbulah - Mutchilba - Mareeba - Kuranda - Cairns
Day 176
Friday, August 17, 2007

The final run into Cairns! Quite a scenic drive but such an amazing contrast to only 24 hours previously where it was flat and dry - now we were in hilly country with green everywhere. Fields of various crops were everywhere where it wasn’t too rugged to crop. Stopped at a little humdinger of a “General Store and Post Office” to fuel up (supporting the local community). The place was an old weatherboard place, at a guess around 1930’s vintage, but was spruced up and cleaned to within an inch of its life. Just fantastic. The fuel pump was perhaps a different story as it coughed and spluttered whilst fuelling our vehicle and finally died in a slight puff of fumes!?! Luckily the smell of igniting fuel didn’t follow and we paid and informed the lovely young lass behind the counter who rolled her eyes with obvious frustration at a fuel pump with its own personality.

Passed through several small country centers and finally into the regional hub of Mareeba. Ahhhhh traffic…..even traffic lights! We ended up on the Bruce Highway - and the race was on. Trucks, buses, cars all right up your clacker. Stress levels on the rise rush rush rush! It was almost like once you were on the highway you were not allowed to slow durn to turn off because you would disrupt the traffic. Sometimes people were so close behind you they could have rubbed the dirt off the back of the trailer. We arrived at Kuranda as rain began to fall and as our wipers were about as much use a tits on the proverbial bull it was prudent, prior to winding our way down the east side of the Great Dividing Range, to change the wipers so that visibility was above the 10%!m(MISSING)ark. Kuranda seemed like a very quaint, albeit up market, little village atmosphere. With forward visibility restored to an acceptable level we embarked on the twisty, turning drive down into Cairns. Luckily we weren’t going up as the speed of some of the trucks going up was a darn sight faster than what we could go. The views were somewhat limited as the cloud base was still below us until at least halfway down where we finally saw the coast…..and sugar cane fields. Woo Hoo! Tropical Cairns - no sun but!!! A taste of things to come for several days thereafter.

Parked the trailer at “Crystal Cascades Van Park”, sounds very salubrious. Had the old feller who showed us around who was an absolute pearler - a real character with a distinctive voice you could hear from anywhere in the park. We didn’t bother setting up as it was still drizzling and took off to the Post Office to collect schoolwork(marked and new stuff), books/tapes from the school resource centre and any other mail. Walked around the centre of Cairns, visited the Tourist info centre and then along the Esplanade. Tourist information and booking centers abounded everywhere. It seems that every shop will act as a booking agent almost - irrespective of their prime business. Such is life in a tourist orientated town. Almost need to speak Japanese or German though to read some of the signs! Having said that, it seemed like a really nice place though and you don’t seem to have to go far to get away from the hustle and bustle of Cairns and into the smaller village type atmosphere of some of the smaller outlying areas/suburbs.

Kids went to bed with the excitement of knowing that their grandparents were going to be here first thing in the morning - 4:35 am to be exact!

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Photos

Camooweal NP
Theres worse places than this to camp

Trailer Maintenance
Must stick to the service schedule - best to do it a time of our choosing rather than parked up along the side of the road.

Camp entertainment
A recital by Rhiannon for our entertainment pleasure

One big Croc
Actual lifesize model of a croc shot back in the 70's...8.3metres or so!

River Crossing
Type example bridge / river crossing along the Burke Development Road.