Seaforth

Mike and Jan (after hearing our report on Airlie Beach) arrived in Seaforth where we were going to hook up again to explore the National parks around MacKay. They too were impressed by the little council caravan park at Seaforth and booked in for the night. We’d arranged to have some drinks at the park with John and Gaye after they closed the shop at 7pm, so with a couple of hours to kill, we took our rods to the beach to try our luck. Today the fish won and we returned for drinks fishless.

Gaye and John

Cane train outside Seaforth

Seaforth

We headed to a seaside town about 40k north of MacKay called Seaforth. This was mainly to catch up with old friends Gaye and John who bought the General store there last year. Gaye was famous in Darwin for making Penny’s Pies and we were pleasantly surprised to see that she was now making them in Seaforth. On top of this, the council caravan park across the road was three quarters empty and an excellent camp ground right on the beach. This is where we will spend 2 days.

John and Gayes General Store

Gaye at work

Sal and Steve at camp

Some feathered wildlife.

Airlie Beach

We passed through Townsville to pick up a new battery for our trailer and some odds and sods then drove on to Airlie Beach were we planned to stay two nights. BIG MISTAKE. Not being backpackers or transient tourists on their way to the Whitsunday Islands, this town offered us nothing in the way of seclusion or privacy. We drove out the next day.


Col and Steve. (So Impressed)

Charters Towers

Leaving Mount Surprise for the final time, we head due south on our way to Charters Towers. Following the Kennedy Development Road to Lynd Roadhouse were we plan to head east. Weather today is fairly bleak, overcast with lots of showers. Road trains made this leg of our trip quite nerve wrecking. We were able to foresee the arrival of most oncoming road trains by monitoring UHF channel 40 but even still some just appeared out of nowhere scaring the proverbial out of us on this single lane road. We enjoyed a roast at the Charters Towers RSL and a few drinks at our camp at the Aussie Outback Oasis Cabin and Van Village

Undara Lava Tubes

Today we are finally going to explore the Lava Tunnels at Undara. We set off early not wanting to miss our tour and arrived at the Undara Lodge at around 9:45. We were bussed to Stephenson’s Lava Tube were we went for a guided tour. The geology of these tubes is incredible where the rivers of lava, some over a hundred kilometres long, eventually covering them selves in their own granite skin burying themselves into there own underground lava rivers over 20,000 years ago. (The lava fields themselves began forming some 190,000 years ago).

Lava Tube Entrance

Lava Wall

After a quick lunch, we headed 15 Kilometres southeast to visit the Kalkani Crater, an extinct volcano last erupting 20,000 years ago. The aerial photos of this volcano looked fascinating so we made the journey 600 meters up the side of the volcano to pear into the crater. Well worth the effort.

Kalkani Crater

On completion we returned to Mount Surprise to put our feet up and enjoy a well earned drink.

Sal and Steve, Risk over Drinks

Mount Surprise

Heading west, Innot Hot springs bound we drove through Innisfail trucking through the town centre heading along the Palmerston Hwy. climbing the Misty Mountains. Toward the top we stopped at the South Johnstone River Gorge lookout. From the road we got a good view of the gorge and gave the 2k lookout walk a miss.

North Johnstone River Gorge

From there it was onto the country town of Millaa Millaa for fuel. Another postcard for mum and some supplies. Millaa Millaa has a huge Kari Pine tree trunk recovered from the national park after being blown down in a cyclone.

We drove on to Innot Hot springs to evaluate the camping facilities and test the water. Yes the spring is hot even though the spring head near the bridge appears to be producing no more water then a garden tap. The Innot Springs Caravan Park didn’t appear to offer a lot of shade for tents and trailers so returned to the Wild River Bridge about 5k’s back east to lunch under the bridge. We decided to return to Bedrock Caravan Park at Mount Surprise, where we had stayed a month previous on our way from the territory to Cairns.

Bedrock Camp Ground, Mount Surprise

Flying Fish Point

We were headed to Flying Fish Point just east of Innisfail. We planned to stop to visit Speed and Sam, who are living west of Gordonvale in the shadow of Walsh’s Pyramid. Lunch was excellent and it always great to catch up with these guys, especially for Steve who wasn’t in Cairns for my Birthday the previous week where Speed and Sam dined with us.



Speed, Sam & Sally


Steve and Speed

Continuing towards Flying Fish Point we followed the dirt back road where we were required to give way to our first cassowary and small chick. Having seen countless signs warning us of the presence of cassowaries we were beginning to wonder if the existence of these birds was indeed a myth as claimed by Speed.

Cassowary
We stayed in the caravan park with an evening stroll around Flying Fish Point checking out this somewhat out-of-the-way seaside village.