Judy & Brian Tour Oz

  Rollingstone, Qld. July 31st, 2024 Today we moved our camp down to Rollingstone, some 360km away. It takes a while to get drive to the other side of Cairns but after that it's a reasonable sort of run down to Innisfail, where we stopped for a coffee, and then to Ingham and through to Rollingstone, which is about 50km north of Townsville.  We had been allocated our old site from last year, but at the last minute they switched us to another, still by the lakeside, but arguably ‘nicer’. It's big and we don't have a neighbour outside, so it's all good. We had a pleasant afternoon sitting in the sun before the wind picked up and the clouds rolled in. Here's a few snaps of our spot: Judy taking easy. Rollingstone Qld When they say Lakeside, this is what they mean.  Rollingstone Qld  Our home. Rollingstone Qld I was up early this morning and went for my usual walk along the beach. I hadn't counted on the high tide, which meant a bit of walking through he mangrove ...

  Port Douglas, Qld July 26, 2024 Easy 130km down the mountain to Glengarry, which is as close to Port Douglas as you’d like for a caravan park. This year, as the Cook Highway is a bit of a mess between here and Cairns, we though we might slide down there tonight, stay in a hotel and I can do my Parkrun at 7am Saturday, rather than leaving at 6 am and hoping to make it on time. We stayed in a grandly name hotel, The Palm Royale, out at a suburb called Manunda. The hotel is conveniently situated not far from several shopping centres and a 10 minute drive to Paloma, which is where I’ll do the parkrun. Found the hotel easily enough, the traffic on a Friday arvo is manic, the shops all look half empty and to be honest, the whole area looked a bit seedy. Our room had a nice little balcony overlooking the pool and we decided to drink bubbles and get a pizza for dinner. All the pizza shops, and there are  a lot, just around our area, all seemed to be flat-out. I finally drove to o...

  Atherton, Qld July 23rd 2024 Woke to a chilly wind picking up and blowing straight through the park. So much for sunny warm days. Left Undara and proceeded to Atherton via Mount Garnett and Ravenshoe. Stopped at Ravenshoe for a quick coffee and a vanilla slice. All the way from Undara we had been watching the sky clouding over as we approached the tablelands. By the time we were nearing Atherton it was seriously black and not long after we had set up, it started to rain. No chance of sunny days here. But it's a great spot and very relaxed and we could probably stay here a lot longer than a few days. Maybe one day we’ll get it sorted, if only it would stop drizzling. Went out to Lake Barinne, where there is a Tea House and a lovely boat to go out cruising on the lake. The cruise guide took us around the shore of half the lake, volcano crater actually, pointing out the highlights: eels, fish, 100 year old trees, snakes, water lilies, various birds and the like. His grandfather bou...

  Undara Qld Just 21st 2024 Three hundred and eighty five kilometres north of Charters Towers, is Undara, or to be more precede the Discovery Parks Undara Lava Tubes caravan park. Of the 385km, there is a huge free camp about 30km north of CT, a town called Glendale that I missed this time because I blinked, a Spring Creek with a patch of dirt for caravan, and The Lynd, a lonely roadhouse. I still have no idea why its called the Lynd, and it doesn’t appear on the map, but its 260km north of CT and is the only fuel (only anything actually) between CT and Mount Garnet, some 140km further up the road. We have stopped here every time we’ve been up here, might as well fill up the tank, grab a coffee, a sandwich and use the facilities. Facilities? They are closed and padlocked and carry a big sign hat says “For the use of Roadhouse customers only”. But you’re welcome to wander way out and down the back and use one of the toilets in the two dongas left open for that purpose, and you do...

  Charters Towers Qld. July 17th 2024 Left Belyando late-ish, maybe 930. What was the rush? We are only going 200 K to Charters Towers and we had been told about the massive roadworks, so no need to get to them early! Road started out as bad as yesterday, but once past the roadworks it was pretty good and we cruised up to CT without drama. We are staying here four nights, so this entry will expand a bit as we do things. On the list is a visit to the Texas Longhorn Ranch, Parkrun at the airport (yes, inside the airport), and this year we are going to the rodeo again. Looked at the event list and had little idea what any of it was, but last time it was great fun and very entertaining to watch the cowboys and girls go through their paces. Out of town early today to get to the Texas Longhorns. This is a farm about 10km out of town, which started breeding Texas Longhorns, and many other longhorn-ed cattle thirty years ago. Why? What use are Texas longhorns? Turns out not much in ...

  Belyando Crossing Qld July 16, 2024 Belyando Crossing is a road-house, a fleabite on the side of the road from Emerald to Charters Towers. Normally we’d keep going, but this year we are trying to do smaller hops, only 270km to be more exact. The road is a shocker. Judy described it as ‘lumpy’ and this fits it perfectly. You rock and roll and get tossed around and finally you drop to 70 kph to let it settle down, but then it goes smooth again so you get back up to speed and then it all turns to wild-mouse territory again. We have stopped here for coffee and toilets a few times, it looks a bit of a fright from the road but is clean and basic. Caravan parking is weird... it’s just two, or three or even four  lines. you just stop, nose to tail and that’s that. At least being the first one means we can't be parked in. They even have power and water, well, a dribble from a tap, but hey, that’s OK. And if we needed justification for keeping one Telstra mobile phone, this is i...

  Emerald Qld July 14, 2024 Good run across to Jericho, but then you approach the Great Dividing Range and it turns a bit ugly. The road is winding as it climbs to some 500 metres and the narrow road surface is best described as “rough”. Not pot-holes as such but bumpy and jolting. Turned a dream run into a very long day in the saddle. We have decided to stay in Emerald itself this year and take a run out to Rubyvale tomorrow, rather than camp out there again. Sky's on fire. Emerald Qld Well, its tomorrow and we set of at a leisurely 10 am or so and wandered out to Rubyvale, via the Snake crossroads and Sapphire. Nothing much seems to have changed in town since we were here last year, except the Miners Cottage fossicking place has changed hands. First thing the did is double the price of the buckets of wash, and halve the number of fossickers. Or so it seemed to me. Still, they do give you scones with jam and cream and a nice cup of tea for ‘smoko’, so it’s not all bad. The $30...