The Effects of Rain

When it rains, water falls from the sky.  When it rains heavily a lot of water falls from the sky.  It collects in puddles, soaks into the ground, gathers in streams and rivers, and where the terrain drops suddenly, it creates waterfalls.

Now we’ve seen some of these waterfalls.  Very often they’re about as exciting as a dripping tap, with about as much water going over them to boot.  But of course, there’s been rain, a lot of rain, and the waterfalls are going full bore . . . .

. . . . and they look just great

For those who are interested, these are the Malanda, Millaa Millaa and Millstream  falls.  Of course, not all the falls are big, some are quite gentle and have paths that cross them.

Now what needs water?  Did I hear you say “tea”?  Quite right.  So we visited the Nerada Tea Plantation a few kilometres outside Malanda, which is Australia’s largest producer.  This is what tea bushes look like.

Did you know that left alone, the tea bushes will grow up to five metres tall and produce flowers?  Here’s the flower, it’s small but quite pretty.

Of course the other drink (non-alcoholic) of which we’re very fond is coffee and so we took a look at the Jaques Coffee plantation, near Mareeba.  Here we learned about all the trials and tribulations suffered by the family to get their business off the ground.  Twice they were completely wiped out, firstly by severe weather and then by misguided government action spraying their bushes to eradicate a pest which they didn’t have.  The spraying killed every bush.

Happily, the business is now flourishing, along with their 150,000 coffee bushes.

And of course we’ve seen acres and acres of banana plantations and sugar cane, and this extraordinary fig tree.  Here’s just a little bit of it.

After all that chasing about, it was time for a short rest.  We found a really nice camp site at Lake Eacham and stayed there for a couple of days.  The camp kitchen was equipped with a rather good fireplace that we made use of to drive away the dampness of the evenings.  We also met Bob and his lovely Chinese wife Annie and spent quite a few hours putting the world to rights.

With only a couple more weeks left, we decided to go as far north as we could reasonably get and so crammed in some miles, stopping overnight at Mount Carbine where I practiced being nonchalant as the sun went down.  And it wasn’t raining!

An early start the next morning and by noon we arrived in Cooktown.  Take a look on the map, it’s just south of the Cape York Peninsula, as far as sealed roads go.  The road climbed through the mountains and we stopped a few times to take in the view.

Cooktown is where James Cook landed and repaired his ship the Endeavour in 1770, after it had been holed on coral.  His landing is re-enacted annually each June and there are commemorative statues and plaques all over the place referring to his visit.  There’s also a museum which we found fascinating.  Amongst many other items, one of the Endeavour’s anchors and a cannon that were dumped overboard to lighten the ship have been found, stabilised and are now on display.  Given the hardships they endured and the shoals in the vicinity that had to be avoided to return to sea, it’s very clear that Cook must have been a remarkable seaman and an individual with a remarkable strength of character.

And then by way of contrast, we saw the local police dealing with a drunk.

For some people it never rains but it pours J

A Bit of Difference

In my last blog I mentioned that we were not too impressed with Julia Creek and so continued to a dot on the map called Nelia.  Camps7 (the ‘bible’ of where to camp in Australia) referenced Corella Creek Country Farm Stay.  It sounded OK but the navigation instructions were a bit vague and so we reverted to entering the Latitude and Longitude into the satnav.  It took us off the highway down a track to an intersection of dirt roads.  There was nothing to indicate a camp site, or anything else for that matter.  Then a face appeared by the car and asked if he could help.  “Yes” he said, “this is the place”, pointing to his back yard.  ‘Oh well’ we thought, ‘let’s go for it’.  We negotiated our way through some trees, dodging a flock of geese and a goat until we found a spot to camp.  Eric, we learned his name later, was trying to set up a camping ground.  We’re not entirely sure but guess that we must have been very early visitors as very few facilities were fully in place.  Still, it did have a shower powered by hot water from the artesian bore and lots of what might be called ‘character’.  By the time we were set up, Eric had found an old truck wheel and was busily building a camp fire for us.  Then Matt appeared.  He was a local drover who had fallen off his horse, cracked some vertebrae and was flown out by the Flying doctor for treatment.  Still wearing his body-suit that didn’t seem to interfere with drinking beer, he was very matter of fact about the whole episode, even reporting that his horse was OK.  Kim ended up feeding all of us and in return we were presented with some freshly caught and cooked yabbies (local fresh water crayfish).  The goat, named Sebastion, considered itself party to the proceedings and simply joined in.

 

 

Next morning most of the rest of the town of Nelia turned out to greet us, including this handsome turkey, a variety of chickens, turkeys, guinea fowl and geese.  We were told that the town name is pronounced ‘nearly a’ because it’s ‘nearly a town’ (doh!).  Actually the population is just five, not including Sebastion.

 

 

Next day we came across some drovers moving a mob of cattle.  It surely must be rare in these days of mechanisation to witness the use of horses for the work, rather than the more usual quad bikes and helicopters. 

 

 

The twenty-first century came back with a vengeance as road trains passed us one after another.  They’re huge things that cause a great draft of wind as they go by.  Most drivers are thoughtful and pull well into the nearside to minimise the disruption.  It probably also eases the boredom of driving for hour after hour.  On dirt roads, there’s no choice but to pull over and stop when a road train appears.  The dust cloud caused by these monsters is simply too great to see through.  There’s usually a scramble to close the windows and air vents too because the dust penetrates every tiny gap.

This is one that passed later in the day when we were on a bit of sealed road - four trailers and over 150 feet long.

 

When smaller vehicles pass, the usual practice is to slow sufficiently to avoid throwing up stones.  However, one knucklehead in a ute decided he couldn’t be bothered and we now have a large star in the windscreen.  Thanks pal!  Repairs will have to wait until we get to Brisbane.  We know from experience that new Land Rover windscreens are about as rare as hen’s teeth.

 

 

We noticed an increase in the number of termite mounds.  Some were quite small, others of more impressive size, up to a couples of metres high in some cases.  There are certainly an awful lot of termites in Queensland.  We’ve had our house checked a couple of times and needed to eradicate a nest when we first moved in.  Termites are also known as ‘white ants’, although they’re not actually ants but a relative of the cockroach.  It’s something to do with not having a thorax apparently – hope you’re impressed with all this knowledge, but no questions please.  That’s all I know, other than they’re a pest of plague proportions.

 

 

The long, tedious drive eventually took us to a place known as Porcupine Gorge.  It’s allegedly Australia’s answer to the Grand Canyon, although we declined to ascribe to that view without a very large magnifying glass.  It was impressive and the sun broke through the clouds at just the right moment to dispel the mist so that we got to take in the whole view.  Here’s one end of it.

 

 

We camped nearby, setting off quite early the following morning along the Kennedy Development Road towards Ravenshoe and Atherton.  The route took us towards and eventually onto the Great Dividing Range, which we’d last seen at the southern end thousands of kilometres back at the Grampians, in Victoria..  The unsealed road was straight and for the most part fairly uninteresting.  We saw only a couple of vehicles all day.  We did see quite a lot of emaciated cattle in the dry arid regions, lots of eagles, a few emus, kangaroos and a solitary dingo.

 

 

Then quite suddenly the scenery started to look greener.  The cattle were fatter and as we passed through the mountains, rivers actually had water in them.  After weeks of aridity it came as a bit of shock and we were fascinated by the lush green grass growing at the side of the road.

 

 

Then it rained.  Not gentle drizzle but a whopping great downpour.  Arriving at Ravenshoe we dashed into the tourist office to check on the weather prospects and having seen the local radar image on their computer, hurriedly pushed on to Atherton.  We had just sufficient time to set up camp before the storm caught up with us and so after a hasty meal we abandoned the outside and took to the tent.

 

 

That’s it for now.  In the next blog I’ll tell you about the plus side of rain.

 

Northwards and Eastwards

We liked Alice Springs.  It gave us time to relax and we enjoyed the company of Wally and Carolyn.  We took time to see the local sights, including the Royal Flying Doctor Service museum, where I got some idea of what it must be like to be a patient.

 

 

The School of the Air, where we watched a lesson in progress and wondered at the logistics of the organisation.  140 students from pre-school to Year 8, catchment area ten times the size of the England.  It was the first school of its type, opening in 1951 using the wireless transceivers provided by the Flying Doctor service.  Now lessons take place in real time using the internet.  It was fascinating to watch the children using the electronic equivalent of ‘putting their hand up’ to ask a question and the way that this prompted supplementary questions from others in the class.

 

 

Our last visit was to the Women’s Hall of Fame.  The exhibits told many stories of bravery and surmounting extraordinary difficulties in the harsh conditions of the Australian Outback.  Thought provoking stuff.

 

We finished with drinks and dinners at the casino, a fitting end to a super stopover.

 

 

The clock was ticking and we realised two things; firstly our driving licences were about to expire and we needed to get to Queensland for them to be renewed (Australia doesn’t have a national driving licence but issues them by State, which is a cumbersome process) and also we needed to start thinking about getting back to Brisbane. 

 

 

We headed north along the Stuart Highway; mile after mile of straight roads, unchanging scenery and monotonous driving under a cloudy sky with outbreaks of rain.  As daylight faded it began to rain harder and so we pulled into Barrow Creek, population one male (Les) two dogs and a cat.  We set up camp at the back of the pub on the red dirt.  Despite the drizzle, the ground was so hard it was impossible to drive in tent pegs so we found some rocks and weighted down the tent with these.  Adjourning to the pub (well it was a miserable night) we were entertained by the comings and goings of a succession of customers.  A road train driver explained that his rig of four trailers of melons weighed almost 140 tons, was 160 feet long, took about a kilometre to stop and he had to work his way up through eighteen gears to reach cruising speed.  After a coffee, he left in a cloud of noise and spray.  Then a young lady came in.  She was towing the smallest caravan we had ever seen, wanted a place to park it overnight and could she leave it there until she returned in a few days.  The answer, in the affirmative, led to her asking for a pasty.  This Les presented as though it was a bottle of the finest champagne, complete with a napkin over his arm.  His routine was comical, as were most of his yarns with which he kept us engaged. 

 

 

Somehow we got around to discussing his fuel bowsers and why they wouldn’t work.  The evening ended with me demonstrating binary arithmetic, relating it to his bowser control boxes.  In return, our drinks came gratis.  We agreed that it was a completely absorbing and entertaining evening.

 

 

Northwards again the next day.  We stopped briefly at Tennants Creek for coffee and at the Devils Marbles, a curious rock formation created from the weathering of granite over millions of years, then continued on the dreary road.

 

 

We turned right at Three Ways and headed east on the Overlanders Way, crossing the border into Queensland reaching Mount Isa just after lunchtime where we were able to sort out our licences and breathe a sigh of relief.  A little over 1,100 kilometres in two days is quite hard going in a Defender.  However, we’re rufty tufty British and after a Guinness in the largest Irish club outside Ireland and a good night’s sleep we were up at the crack of dawn.  We visited the Mount Isa Bureau of Meteorology site where we learned about how rain, wind speed and temperature are measured and saw the automatic release of a weather balloon.

 

 

Later the same morning we checked out the underground hospital.  It was dug in 1942 when it was thought that the Japanese would increase their bombing.  They’d already hit Darwin and a great many Australian and American servicemen were engaged in building a new road to carry essential war supplies.  Plus of course, the Mount Isa mines were producing the raw materials.  Happily the hospital was never used in anger but it remains a testament to the ingenuity of the people who created it.

 

 

Continuing east we came to the town of Cloncurry where we camped overnight.  The site was very pretty with bougainvilleas everywhere, but being just twenty feet from the road trains rumbling through all night it was not the most peaceful.

 

 

A new day and after a look at Cloncurry Airport, where the first QANTAS flight landed....

 

 

. . . we took a detour south to visit the Walkabout Creek Hotel at McKinlay, where the film Crocodile Dundee was filmed.  It was a bit of a disappointment as the place was empty and the publican a surly fellow who poured our drinks and left.  Still you’ve got to do these things.

 

 

The road from  McKinlay back to the Overlanders Way at Julia Creek was 100 kilometres of dirt.  Having  been recently dampened by the rain, but insufficient to turn it into a quagmire, the surface was smooth and relatively free from the usual clouds of dust.  It was a real pleasure to roll along about 70kpm enjoying the sight of eagles soaring in thermals and periodically passing cattle searching for something to eat.

 

 

 

 

We weren’t too impressed with Julia Creek and so continued to a dot on the map called Nelia, but more of that in the next blog.

 

Sunsets

We’ve seen some fantastic sunsets on our travels and we would like to share some of these with you.  Photographs of course, do not show the scale, the drama, the gloriousness of the real thing, so you’ll have to use your imagination.  Here goes:

 

Byron Bay

 

Sydney

 

Lake Barrington, Tasmania

 

Franklin, Tasmania

 

Bay of Fires, Tasmania

 

Dadswell Bridge, Victoria

 

Port Augusta, South Australia

 

Oddnadatta Track, South Australia

 

Coward Springs, South Australia

 

The Painted Desert, South Australia

 

South Australia/Northern Territory Border

 

Uluru (Ayers Rock) Northern Territory

 

Curtin Spring Station, Northern Territory

 

Glen Helen Gorge, Northern Territory

Actually, that last one is an early morning picture, but don’t tell anyone!