Jul 26, 2012 - Mt Surprise to Atherton

We left Mt Surprise and hit the final leg of the drive to Atherton. A short 220km - but what an amazing drive at that. The drive started off as typical outback bushland, then into deep forest bushland - a little like valley of the giants in walpole WA or The dandenongs in Vic but as we got closer to Atherton - the rolling greens hills and dairy cattle just wowed us - we have never seen anything like it - it slightly reminded me of Ireland, though I think it was the small narrow winding roads that did that! Arrivng in Atheron is just...

Oct 21, 2011 - Atherton - Oct 18-21

Finally a break in the weather - rained lightly most of the drive south and has continued all afternoon, here on the banks of Lake Tinaroo, about 16 kms out of Atherton. Nice to have some cooler time, though. We called in to "Coffee Works" in Mareeba on the way down - it tells the story of coffee, 1,000 years in the making. Has over 2,000 items of coffee and tea-making treasures - some pieces are unique, even the manufacturers do not have still have them in their collections. There are scores of pots that are the ONLY ones of their kind...

Jul 4, 2011 - Aus - Day 62 - Platypus

Woke up to some more rain. Decided to make our way into town to renew the van's registration (they call it REGO here) for another 6 months. The registration also includes third party insurance in Queensland... $340 later and we're good to go for a while longer. While in town (Atherton), we decided to stock up on some groceries and did a little shopping. Had a Chicken curry and vegetable pie fresh from the bakery... yummy! Shopped out, we made our way to Yungaburra, where we spotted our first platypus. The little guy kept floating on the...

Jul 3, 2011 - Aus - Day 58, 59, 60 and 61 - Grey Skies

The past four days have been somewhat gloomy/sleepy. The grey rainy skies seem to have drained some energy, however we've been plugging on and enjoying ourselves just the same. We've done some backtracking to bring us back to Cairns, where we enjoyed the markets, some Asian food (including some crab, fresh calamari, and fried fish), and having a look at the Endeavour (the ship sailed by captain cook in the 1700s) as it was stationed at the Cairns port for a few weeks. On our way to Cairns, we drove through Port Douglas, which is a small...

Jun 29, 2011 - Atherton - Rocky Creek

Wednesday 29 June - overcast/raining - 26degrees An early 6:15am start to watch the sun come up from the Cooktown Lighthouse Lookout...sadly no sun cause of clouds..but beautiful anyways :) Started our journey along the Savanah Way today - travelling thru rural central QLD to Mareeba where I saw my first DRIVE THRU BAKERY...yes could only happen in outback OZ.. After the mandatory pie for lunch (well it was a bakery)...moved on to Rocky Creek Anzac Memorial Park for the night. This is a free camp park for anyone wanting to stay the night....

Nov 6, 2010 - Atherton Tablelands

Atherton Tablelands (Lake Tinaroo) – 17 October to 26 October (9 nights) Sorry that this one is a bit long winded, but there was so much to say about this place. The 233km drive from Mt Surprise to Lake Tinaroo was in two parts really. Firstly is was mostly boring, dry, featureless “Murray” cattle station scrub and then when we got close to Mt Garnet, the scenery changed dramatically to lush green pastures and mountains. We had arrived in the “Atherton Tablelands”. Oh boy, what a refreshing change. From a place called Ravenshoe (pronounced...

Sep 7, 2010 - The Atherton Tablelands

From Mt. Surprise we again made our way east via Mt. Garnet and Innot Hot Springs then turned north to Atherton and the Tablelands. We were really looking forward to this part of the trip and the Tablelands didn't disappoint us. Soon we were travelling through beautiful green hilly country with tropical forests in the valleys and high up on the tallest hills. We stayed at Lake Tinaroo, near Atherton which is actually a man-made lake - the water supply for Cairns and the Tablelands. There is good fishing in the lake and the record is held...

Jul 21, 2010 - Lake Tinaroo

Sunday, July 18th Guy, Grace and Hayden enjoyed a fish on Lake Tinaroo in between decent rains. Then we set off for a drive. Found the 'Curtain Fig" in the Mabi rainforest. A magnificent, magical tree. 600 years old, seemed at least 100mts high. Then went on to Lake Eacham. A crater lake with clear waters and rain forest getting its feet wet. All the kids were disappointed we wouldn't let them swim like some others were. But it was damn cold and we were all in raincoats. We all enjoyed the 3km walk around the lake. Grace and Hayden got very...

Jul 17, 2010 - A treat!...Then a steal!

Friday, July 16th On the road by 9am. Road works everywhere, men living at quarters, away from families. Lots of road trains, unsealed. Guy needing UHF to communicate with control points as to when can enter a section of the road. Grace and Hayden making good use of their DSIs. Daniel ruling the sound waves. Reading chapters on naughty AMelia Jane to the kids....but I think giving them too many ideas when we stop to get up to mischief..... Decided that to spend the day at some thermal springs sounded too good! Especially after all the dust....

Jul 17, 2010 - Well on our way!

First opportunity to stop and write. Saturday evening in the Atherton tablelands, overlooking Lake Tinaroo. But before more detail for here, will backtrack to the start. I am going to write and unfortunately not put photos yet because they have been difficult to upload and if I trying playing with that now I will not get this down. Hope its still interesting. The main reason is for the kids to have a record. Monday July 12th Left Melbourne as planned on Monday afternoon July 12th at 3.30pm, Kelly's birthday. We had celebrated Ciaran's...

Jul 17, 2010 - Outback QLD

wednesday, July 14th Packed up a went tent so later on the road than planned. Not on the road till 9.30am. Kids excited at seeing lots of emus. Guy excited at seeing peoples different setups and getting more ideas! Bit of a slow day. Few toiletting issues with Daniel, bit change of routine...not fun on the road. Deciding on which route to take. Continued on the A2 to Barcaldine. Reached Longreach by 5pm. Treated the kids to some hot chips with carrot and cucumber. Had left home 50 hours ago and travelled 2000km. Decided to kick on and drive...

Oct 26, 2009 - Atherton Tablelands

Bypassing the horrendously expensive Kurranda Railway and Skyrail, we headed up in to the tablelands behind Cairns for a few days. We found a gorgeous little cabin at Lake Eacham, situated nearby a volcanic lake surrounded by rainforest. Speaking of which there is precious little left up there, having been 98% cleared by farmers in the early 20th century. We stumbled across a little fish farm Called Tarzali Lakes where he also has a colony of Platypus living in one of the dis-used bottom dams. They were cool little guys. World only...