LEAVING CAIRNS 9th July 2009

Tuesday 9^th July Leaving Cairns

Time to leave Cairns after a stay of 10 days whilst we waited for our new number plates and have the rear window replaced. We enjoyed our stay and really felt as though we had got to know Cairns and the surrounding areas much better and of course the warm weather was really great, however we did get a cool snap with the temp going down to 15 deg overnight. Thankfully it did climb up to about 28 most days and the sun shone all day.

We said our goodbyes to Ken and Sheena as we were packing up the camper just as she was leaving for work at the airport. We did all our checks, everything fasted down, chains bolted, gas turned off, brake off, all legs up and secured and finally that all our lights and indicators were working. We decided to drive over to Undara via Innisfail heading due south as we hadn’t driven that way before on this trip. We had to get to our destination before dark and as we hadn’t booked ahead we weren’t sure that we would be able to stay there or have to move on to Mount Surprise. For the first time since Tamworth the dark clouds loomed overhead with the occasional drops of rain, but nothing more than that. We were hoping that we would have a downpour so the trailer would get a good wash.

Before entering Innisfail the road headed off towards the west on The Palmerston Highway, named after the guy that navigated his way across the range and through the scrub and opened up many of the routes that are still used today, as mentioned before in the blog.

Here we were climbing the tablelands heading towards Atherton once again with mountains all around us and huge valleys dotted with smaller hills- rainforest, lush farmland with the mist covering the mountain peaks and the tops of the hills. Fields abundant with cane, bananas, palms, meadows and pampas. Dairy farms plus the plantations, they have it all, it’s just wonderful country side. Here it did start to rain, we stopped at Henrietta Creek in the National Park for a break and to stretch our legs, we read  all about the walks throughout the park and though of Stuart and how he would probably love to be here doing them.

 

We drove on heading for Ravenshoe over the Beatrice River on the McIntyre Bridge. At the top on Windy Hill we surrounded in mist and could barely make out the wind farm which we had so clearly seen before a few weeks ago we were here last time. We stopped at the Millstream National Park which we had by passed on our last visit to see the falls which are the widest in the region.

These are Australia’s oldest falls as they thunder over volcanic rocks which are 3 million years old. You can see where the lava flowed in channels making vertical grooves. Very impressive!

As we approached Ravenshoe the mist cleared and the climate changed no more rain, now warmer and the vegetation a very dry savannah with eucalypts trees in abundance. Travelling on past the Innot Hot Springs and through to Mount Garnet on the Kennedy Highway we had Undarra loaded into Tom Tom. We set the UHF Radio to channel 40 as advised by the signs, so the truckies could talk to us or we to them if need be and then kept a lookout for these road trains which travel this highway, not wanting to be run down by a 50ft truck pulling three trailers .On these single lane bitumen roads they just don’t pull over they just keep on coming on the narrow road, so you have to pull over on to the gravel and slow down or stop, until they pass by. They travel very fast and don’t mess around, also expecting you to pull over to let them overtake and this is when they will use the UHF to call you and say they want to come through or to move off the road if they are approaching. Thankfully they have been doing a lot of work on this highway and the stretches of widened road for two lanes is gradually replacing the strip of bitumen up the middle with the gravel either side. We were lucky as when we met the road trains we were on these sections of the road so they could pass us without any problem, all I had to do was to keep the car and trailer steady as they can cause quite a vacuum as they go by. We saw so much road kill with many kangaroos, snakes, small calves and even a dead wild pig on the side of the road or where they were hit and still in the middle of the bitumen, some so big that we had to slow down and go around them as they would have caught the bottom of the car if we had tried to drive over them. Most were killed at night and probably by the road trains which would not try and swerve to avoid them as it would be too dangerous.

We stopped at Georgetown for our packed lunch and cold drink. This looked like a great little town which had a magnificent local swimming pool set by the wide river bank which incidentally was as dry as a bone. We continued on to Undara hoping that they would have some space for us as we hadn’t booked ahead. At the sign it was a further 15 kms along a road that had been recently laid with bitumen and checked in at the office. With no powered sites left and all the other accommodation full they offered us the overflow area which was next to the swimming pool with no power or water. No problem we were self sufficient so we took it and also booked for the 8am tour of the lava tubes the next morning. All too much to explain here but briefly the park contains the remains of the earth’s longest flow of lava that originated from a single volcano in modern geological times. www.undara.com.au after having set up we went down to the camp fire and sat around on the timber logs to watch a slide show of some of the animals and birdlife in the area. Giving the talk was a young Savannah Guide Steve, who was most entertaining and we thoroughly enjoyed it along with the other 30 visitors sitting around the camp fire.

As we made our back to our little home we were startled by some scurrying around by the steps of the trailer using our torch we saw a Bettong, a small nocturnal marsupial and can grasp objects with their tails like possums can. It was scratching around on the ground quite oblivious to us or the torchlight we shone on it. The golden rule of not feeding any wildlife we left it to find its natural food.