16-06-2004 - Stage 2, Day 19 - Cairns, QLD

After our last web update in Longreach (central Queensland) we headed out to the Stockman's Hall of Fame together for a bit of a look. Bradley thought it was good, but I wasn't impressed at all as I thought they'd grossly understated (if not completely ignored) the aboriginal roll in the exploration and development of Australia. I did take a couple of photos there though, and they're for Tracy. There was a very cool hand made bridle on display and I thought that Tracy (who is into both leatherwork and bridles) would be keen to see it.






We did buy a groovy red RM Williams t-shirt in the gift shop though, and a book which I found to be an awesome read (and was very surprised to find there). I'd highly recommend this book to all those who appreciate a good read. It's called 'Why Weren't We Told' with a subtitle of 'A personal search for the truth about our history', authored by Henry Reynolds. Henry Reynolds is an academic historian and the book is about exactly what I found lacking at the Stockman's Hall of Fame - the 'aboriginal question'. Email me if you want to borrow my copy, and I'll post it to you - mum has it at the moment.

Anyway, we left Longreach that afternoon and headed up the highway straight to Winton because we'd heard that the Winton Show was on - clearly an event we shouldn't miss! Went to the info centre when we got there and found out that about 100km south of Winton is the Lark Quarry where there is the worlds only dinosaur stampede preserved. Very cool I thought, but we didn't end up going out there.

Nevertheless, we parked up and then did the Winton Pub Crawl - 3 pubs and the RSL - 1 beer in each. Played a few games of pool (2 all), had dinner and made a v-line for the show! Watched a groovy band, drank way too many local beers and staggered home to bed.

Next day (13-06-2004) was a particularly slow start for Bradley... Took a photo of some FJ's for stinky on the way out of town.


Took off north around lunch time up the road to Hughenden. Took a picture for you all along the way.


From Hughenden we headed north up a dirt track called the Kennedy Developmental Road with the aim of camping the night at the Porcupine Gorge National Park. Stopped at a few 'points of interest' on the way. Nothing too exciting, but took some pics anyway (we get in trouble when we don't!) Here's Bradley walking up to a lookout that had nothing to special to look at.


Here's me at the top of the lookout getting close and personal with a boab tree.






One of the best things about this lookout was the big spider, so we took a couple of spider pics for Sally, because she's very much into spiders.




After the not so good lookout we stopped at a much better lookout over looking the Porcupine Gorge.






We talked rocks with some people there from the Whyalla 4WD club. No pictures of them, but we found out later that they are on their way to Cape York too, so we might see a bit more of them.

Stopped for the night at the Pyramid Lookout Camping Ground in the Porcupine Gorge National Park. Next morning we got up bright and early and did the 1.2km walk down to the bottom of the gorge. Here we are on the way down.




And a stack of pics from down in the gorge










Packed up camp and headed north again after our walk. Came across stacks of termite mounds on the sides of the road, so we stopped and took a picture


Saw a bush chook (emu) who didn't run away as we approached, so we pulled up for a picture. Unfortunately he turned out to be camera shy after all, so we only got his back.


Just past Lyndhurst Station, about 45km before The Lynd Junction, we stopped at this spot where there were at least half a dozen or more wedge tailed eagles all circling around. Never seen them in a 'flock' before. Tried to get a picture because it looked awesome, but we had no joy on the camera front.

Continued on and stopped for lunch at the Oasis Roadhouse at The Lynd Junction. They turned out to have the smallest bar in Australia (or so they claimed) so we felt obliged to test run their facility...




Saw a cool sign when we headed off again. If you zoom right in on this picture you will see someone has written 'Hungry Cows!!!' underneath the sign. Needless to say, we took great care on that road for fear of being munched on by a rogue cow.


Headed north again and stopped at the caravan park at Mt Garnet for the night. Camp fires were good to go there, so we brewed up a few coals and made ourselves a fresh loaf of bread in the camp oven. The loaf turned out perfect too - our biggest bread making success so far! No pics though. Also experimented with making fancy jaffles while we were at it. We put two flat bits of uncooked bread dough in the jaffle iron with some filling in the middle, left it in a warm spot to prove until the bread rose and filled the jaffle iron, then cooked the fresh jaffle-bread it in the camp fire. Very successful!

Drove towards Innisfail the next day, via the Millaa Millaa scenic route (very pretty drive through tropical rainforest). Stopped at the Palmerston National Park and did the 1.5km walk to the North Johnstone Lookout. Here's Bradley on the walking track through the upland tropical rainforest.


A pretty fern and some fungi




A cool tree, both with and without Bradley. Bradley managed to pick up a leach between his toes on this walk, and insisted that it was all my fault because I made him pose standing down a hole for this picture!




There were vines everywhere in this rainforest (Tarzan style) and also ace trees, so I took some more pictures...




And finally, we made it to the lookout


After our walk we headed into Innisfail on the north Queensland coast for lunch. I managed to pick up some lovely tropical fruit at a stall on the side of the road - I was in heaven! Headed up to Cairns after that where we booked into a backpackers hostel for the night (15-06-2004). We went out for dinner that night to one of the best Italian restaurants I've ever been to - those who know me well will realise that's a very big claim! If you ever come to Cairns, be sure to have dinner at La Fettuccina - it's fabulous!

Well, that was yesterday. Today we've just kicked around like lazy tourists. Planning to go out for a dive on the reef soon, so we'll report on that next time.

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