Mt Isa

No prizes for working out what the major industry for Mount Isa is, just look at the mine site dominating the town. The pic shows the view from the city lookout. Mount Isa is a lot bigger than we imagined as it spreads out for miles.

We have booked in to The Irish Club for dinner tonight for Kathy's birthday, and we usually go out for dinner on birthdays.

Tiffany likes the caravan park as the off lead dog park is about 100m up the road so she gets a bit of a walk and a good run.

Cloncurry

We left Karumba after 2 nights and started south towards home. The sunsets at Karumba are considered magnificent, but it could be because the majority of visitors are from the eastern states and are not used to seeing the sun go down over the sea.

Our intention was to stop at the Burke and Wills Roadhouse, but when we got there at lunch time it was already crowded with more queuing up to get in, so we continued to Cloncurry. We will stay here for a couple of days while we decide where we will go from here. We have to be in Alice by 10th September, so we have some time to look around on the way.

Georgetown

After 10 days in Atherton, we are on move again, heading west towards Karumba on the Savannah Way.

We had a weekend at the dog trials, with very friendly people and lots of tips and advice on training, and a good feed from the Tablelands Dog Obedience club.

The pic shows one of the residents of the Atherton caravan park. The cane toad lives near the toilets and is active at night, which usually frightens Kathy on her way to the loo in the dark. They are hard to see unless they move, but there are lots of them around.

Georgetown is a little place halfway between Atherton and Karumba. We will be here for one night and should be in Karumba tomorrow.

Platypus Sighting

We were at Yungaburra, the heritage listed village near Atherton, being tourists when we were told about the platypus viewing platform near the bridge. Nothing doing at the official viewing point, but there was a walk along the creek. Not twenty paces down the track and there was a platypus on the surface doing platypus things. We watched it for a while and got about a minute of video, the pic is a grab from the video. We only saw the one, which is quite lucky because I have no idea of what the plural of platypus is.

Atherton

This is the view from the back fence of the Atherton Holiday Park. We have booked to stay for a week, Kathy has washed everything that can be washed and we are looking forward to being tourists for a while. There are lots of things to see and do in the area and many of them allow dogs, so Tiffany can join in.

There are obedience and agility trials next week end, so we may hang on here just to see what happens at a Queensland Country trial.

Cooktown-again

We set up home at the Cooktown Caravan Park next to friends from Mt. Gambier. Mary and John from the Caravan Park re-arranged a few sites to get us next to Jan, Max and Nikea.

The first day was spent cleaning out the back of the Navara, sorting out the equipment and getting back to normal, so we could be tourists again.

The pic shows the Endeavour Falls, close to Cooktown where we went for a drive. We also took Tiffy down to the dog beach to give her a good run as she has been restricted for most of the time in the tent.

Moving on tomorrow towards Atherton. The locals tell us that it will be cold there, but their idea of cold does not align with our idea of cold!

The Last Night in the tent

Archer River was our last night in the tent. We had a herd of cows for company, see pic, and lots of people. Unfortunately there were only two toilets. Looking on the bright side, that means that the seat was always warm.

We are back at the Cooktown Caravan Park, cleaning out the Navara and converting back to caravan life. While we were in the tent we had a couple of light showers, but nothing to cause us worry. However the heavens opened last night and the caravan annex floor was awash with all our boxes and kit still sitting there. We were going to wash everything anyway.

The trip to the "Tip" was worth all the inconvenience. We have met some good people at the camp sites (two of them were from Millswood!), had some good food in the bush, seen a lot of wild life (most of which was still alive) and been to one of the last frontiers of the Australian outback. Problems we had were a cracked windscreen, a number plate shaken off, but recovered, the car fridge packed up but then started up again two days later, and the rear view camera has taken a dislike to being underwater at creek crossings. There is bull dust in every nook and cranny in the Navara, the dog, and us. I think I will need an angle grinder to get the dirt off my feet!

We will spend a few days getting everything cleaned up and sorted, then we will head towards Atherton for the weekend.

Cape York

Here is the proof we all made it to the tip of the Cape York Peninsula. You will probably have to click in the pic to get the larger version to be able to read the sign.

It was long walk from the car park to the Tip, we walked out along the beach and then back over the headland. The views were breathtaking from both routes.

The roads are rough with a deep creek crossing about 5 km from the Tip. There was a Commodore waggon parked on the southern side as they were not game to cross.

More damage to the Navara. The front number plate was just hanging on with one screw after the jolting we got from the corrugated roads. The people in the next camp also last their front number plate in a creek crossing. There is only one direction from here, South. We start back tomorrow.

Loitering within tent

We have left the van in the fisho's back yard at Cooktown and have headed north to Cape York. First night in the tent was at Hahn River, see pic. The second night was at Moreton Telegraph Station and tonight we are at Loyalty Beach approx 45 km to the Tip of Cape York.

Today is the first day we have phone and Internet access, so that is why there have been no progress reports.

We took the Battle Camp road from Cooktown to Laura, with a couple of deep creek crossings, but since getting on the PDR (that's the Peninsula Development Road for southerners) we have had no creek crossings. We came across two girls in a Honda Accord that had lost it's sump guard in a deep sandy patch, but they were OK and they crossed the Jardine River Ferry just behind us. So far the only damage we have is a crack in the windscreen caused by some Rectal Sphincter that was going way too fast for the road, slid on the loose gravel and showered us with rocks.

Tomorrow we go to Cape York and then back here before starting back south.

Cooktown

We have reached Cooktown. The pic shows the cairn that marks the spot where Captain Cook landed to do repairs to the Endeavour. You get magnificent views of Cooktown and the surrounding area from the local lookout, as it is on top of a very steep mountain that is almost in the centre of town.

Yesterday we went to Archer Point, down a track crossing 11 creeks and not getting bogged once. More amazing coastline and photographs.

Several of the people at the Cooktown Caravan Park have been up to the top of the Cape and tell us the roads are good. Even the Telegraph road is good with only a couple of really deep creek crossings. We have decided to store the van in Cooktown and go to the top of the Cape in the tent. We will be going up the 'boring' road that the trucks use as wading hip deep in a tropical river is not so appealing to us as it is to some of the more adventurous people here in the caravan park.