Lava Tubes, Hot Springs and the Knob Jockey

Wednesday 28th July

Finally we have put some kilometres under the belt and now can relax and enjoy very little driving for the next few weeks as we make our way through the Atherton Table lands, Cairns and the Daintree!

We left the hot weather behind us two days ago in Karumba, missing it already but there is only so much to day in that quiet little town, and the ocean really isn’t too friendly in the gulf. Not many waves to surf and too many crocodiles anyway!

From Karumba we headed back to Normanton and yet another big day driving to get to the Undara Lava Tubes for out tour this morning at 8am. Last night we scored a sweet little camping spot, down a little track behind a roadside rest area, where all the other “plebs” were parked (you can tell when Brett is narrating the story), we camped right in the middle of a dry rainforest.

Rise and shined at 6 this morning which is much easier in the warm weather! Its still warm but not that beautiful heat all day and all night like we were experiencing a few days ago.

We were booked on to the ‘Undara Experience’ at 8o’clock, a half hour drive away. Lez our guide was great, cracked a few jokes and managed to knock up scones jam and cream for morning tea which wasn’t too bad. We did have a bit of a knob jockey on tour, one of those people who think they and only they have seen the whole world, and therefore nowhere you have been, nothing you have ever done is anywhere near as important as what they have managed to fit into the years of their life. So much of the four hours was spent with the voice of this unpleasant character in the background harping on about his supposed higher wisdom of the world; it could have nearly ruined the whole tour. Luckily the tubes were pretty awesome; pictures can’t describe the shear size of them, to think how much lava was once pumping through this landscape is basically incomprehensible.

Tonight we are camped in a yet another beautiful little spot just outside of Ravenshoe, the highlight of the day would have to be Ingot Hot Springs about 15km back down the road. After sweating the morning away climbing in and out of Lava Tubes and hiking our way up and around volcano’s we defiantly needed some form of cleansing! The hot springs on the way to our camp spot seemed to be the answer. We rocked up at about 3pm expecting a lush Garden of Eden, steaming springs, birds chirping all that sort of thing, that wasn’t quite what was waiting for us.

Instead you either had to dig yourself a hole in the creek bed right in the middle of town, on the highway or pay to use the cravan parks pools, seeing that the pools were basically just like a normal spas, we opted for the roadside option. They were not the most picturesque springs, and there wasn’t much water, there were birds, they were not chirping but trying to steal our lunch. At least we were the only ones using them and they were very, very hot!

We are still feeling incredibly refreshed and we hopped out over 4 hours ago! We might even manage to get down there tomorrow morning for a quick dip before exploring the rainforest and waterfalls awaiting us in the tablelands.

The Sun has come out to play!

26th July 2010

Looking back over the last week, one main word comes to mind; driving. We have done plenty of it as we made our way up into the gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland to a sleepy town full of fish, old people and crocodiles.

Wednesday, we left our Poo spot just out side of Alice, we drove and drove and drove some more! Then excitement slapped us in the face as we were sucked into Australia’s Centre for UFO’s at Wycliffe Well. Well that was pretty much all it was, a roadhouse full of newspaper articles and painting of aliens! Brett was attacked but luckily not abducted.

Brett being attacked.

Meegan reminding herself about checking the oil.

Sunset at Soudan


Then onto Devils Marbles for what was supposed to be a quick look but turned into an overnight stop. This was the place to be seen if you owned a caravan or motor home, and as you know these strange creatures with grey hair, carrying their homes around on their backs are of course our favourite prey. We tried to look quite casual, reverse parking right into the centre of them all, ParkUp.com.au Stickers facing all angles as we tried to suck them in, and suck them in we did! Mobs upon mobs of them threw themselves at us asking for brochures and begging to sign up on the spot, there were cat fights and punch ups as each grey nomad tried to get closer to us!

After the brawl was over there was only one couple left. Parked next to us two friendly Victorian Caravaners who also happened to be heavily involved in a Caravan and Camping Club which has over 1000 members, so even though the mobs all slowly died around us after the brawl, we did manage to palm off some brochures and get some good photos and photos tips!

Thursday was spent driving! Through tenant creek, which we thought wasn’t a bad little town, not much going on but plenty of trees which generally makes a big difference. More driving until we came to a little spot a few 100’ks away called Soudan and that night Brett cooked the gnocchi to end all other gnocchi’s!

Well guess what happened on Friday?.......Go on have a guess……. We drove some more, all the way to Mt Isa. We did bump into another Victorian who for some crazy reason was cycling around this massive country. He hadn’t had any fresh fruit for a while so we gave him as much as he could carry and took off to cross the border into Queensland.

After camping just outside of Mt Isa for then night we awoke and set ourselves the task of reaching Karumba, as we were hankering for some warm weather and looking forward to being on the coast again. This meant another big 500k day of driving. When you’re only driving at 80k hour 500km takes a fair while.

Low and behold just over 100k down the road we saw the sign for the Quamby Rodeo, since we had reached cattle country we had both been very keen to experience the outback Aussie’s real nature. No where is this more prominent than at the local Rodeo. So we headed to Quamby which consisted of a Pub, nothing else, no shops no fuel just a pub in the middle of the bush.

Whatever stereo type of a cowboy you have in your head, Quambyins fit the bill. Cow boys, cowgirls, cow kids, all equipped with boots, jeans a chequered shirt, big belt buckles and of course the akubra hat. No guns but plenty of utes loaded up with swags, XXXX Gold and Bundy the Queensland equivalent of alcohol.

By 11.30am we were ringside, XXXX in hand watching the action which had been well underway for the last hour. First up was the bareback horse, although they are not as big or menacing as the bulls, they were more interesting to watch as the horses leap higher and bounce bigger. Next was the cow riding then the little tykes on the calves (some as young as 7). After all sorts of other horse/cow related events came the “Greased Pig”. Where anyone can enter, all you have to do is catch the greasy pig to win yourself $100 and the pig if you wanted it.

Later in the arvo as the beers kept on flowing, came the bull riding. (Many of the competitors were starting to give the bar a bit of a flogging, Beer and Bulls?)
Anyway, most of these crew knew what they where doing, (remember they start competing when they are 7). The bull riding was interesting to watch. Although personally the horses where much more entertaining. The whole show is a photographers dream, we don’t really know what we are doing with the camera but we still managed to pull a few special shots.

Yesterday was yet another big drive to Karumba since we didn’t make it the day before. A few stops in the first hour as some of our cowboy mates kept stopping on the highway and pulling us over to try and get us to skull yet one more XXXX at 10am. They eventually turned off and drove off to their station and we covered a few more 100’ks to Normanton. Finally we felt like we were actually away on holiday as we slowly cruised down the streets sweating in the humity and loving the sunshine! (Even the converter powering the computer is overheating as I type this, and keeps needing to turn its little cooler fan on to cool itself down). Other than a giant crocodile replica Normanton didn’t have much to offer so we jumped back in Bob to finish off the last 70k’s to Karumba.

We nearly made it to Karumba! Then BANG the driver’s side back tyre exploded! The same tyre we lost only 2 weeks ago and only replaced 2 days ago! This time it happened much, much quicker, one minute it was nice and sunny, Karumba was getting closer, the ocean was calling our names then Bam the whole right hand side of the car dropped to the road, driving on the rim of the wheel Brett luckily slowed down and steered us to safety!

It was hot and humid and the sun was baking down hard on us and on the bitumen in the late afternoon. The jack wouldn’t fit because the car was too low to the ground, luckily another car pulled up so we used his jack and ours and finally got the new wheel into place and headed off down the road to sunny 34 degrees Karumba!


A quick dip into the pool then a walk down to the ‘beach’ ( 800m of sand) to watch the amazing sun set into the ocean (which everyone finds amazing, but we are luckily to watch every night back in WA). Our second night without our massive doona and electric blanket was very much appreciated by the two of us!

After making dinner one night, the left over tomato juices decided to remind us of what country we are travelling around!

A friendly grasshopper.

Karumba was a very sleepy town but an awesome way to enjoy the heat as there was really nothing else to do other than sit back, relax and warm up. Actually we did feed a Barramundi and the Barramundi discovery centre and took a few more laps of the pool, Brett went for a run and flexed his muscled with some push-ups, but that was pretty much about it!

A Strange Bearded Man and The Human Poo!

22nd July 2010

Tonight is our last night in the Northern Territory. Tuesday afternoon after spending the day at Desert park checking out all sorts of critters we packed up and headed out of Alice. The last two stops were to the Tyre shop to pick up our Tyre that was meant to be ready; unfortunately we picked the wrong place and the wrong guy to source the wheel we needed. The place was on the Highway and the guy was the sort that speaks a lot of crap but doesn’t actually get much done…… He was nice and friendly but he didn’t come up with the goods so we are now picking up, well hoping to pick up a new one in Mt Isa tomorrow.

Last stop was to grab our washing (nice clean smelling clothes, which now smell like smoke again) from the caravan park. Here, we ran into the little pink, pliffy, poofy woman. I didn’t even know they existed, when I say "they" I mean the “thing” that turns the normal old lady into the pink, ploofy, plify, ploffy woman. I can remember back to the cold winter nights when mum would wrap you in those full piece Pyjamas with the buttons leading from you neck all the way down to your belly. No long sleave shirt and bottoms the all in one suits.

Well you generally grow out of them by about three or four, five or six if you're lucky. In the Caravan parks of Australia they are making a come back. They are making their way into the night time wardrobes of caravaning women. Full piece, full grown adult sized, light baby pink, equipped with lace and buttons, nice comfy track suite material, full length head to toe, all in one sleeping suits! (And they are allowed to be worn out in public, incase your interested in investing in one).

We camped the night 30k out of Alice right on the Tropic of Capricorn, a great little spot we wish we had found earlier in the week before we forked out the cash to be crammed into the leftover areas in the caravan parks. But hey it’s all part of the experience. We pulled up at about 5o’clock right on to a piece of human poo. You would think people would be a little more considerate and do there business in the bush, on a toilet, in hole, anywhere really other than the parking area in front of the fire pit and picnic tables. Luckily some crazy Dutch people and a dodgy looking man with a beard ran out arms flying to let us know that is was human faeces we were about to get a little bit close to, so we moved up a few spots to find a good piece of bitumen for the night.

After dinner and an incredible sunset, the rest of the night was spent by the camp fire chatting away with the Dutch people and the strange bearded man. The bearded man was towing a caravan behind his cruiser. The Caravan was so full of his stuff he could no longer fit in it so he now sleeps on a swag out side the car while all his worldly possessions take up space in the warm cosy caravan. So we shared some stories, swapped advice and every 30 minutes of so we would take it in turns to run out to the late comers piling into the camping spot to let them know they were about to camp on top of Human poo!

Around Alice

One of the river crossings.

An Icy Dip.

Morning Wash

Finke River Campsite....AMAZING!

Tree Hugging

Taking a Dip

Taking in the view.

Chilling out by the river.

Saturday 17th July

I’m sitting here in one of the most beautiful campsites I have even stayed in. Right on the Finke River in the middle of the McDonnell Ranges just a few hours from Alice Springs. The sun is setting; I can hear the creek as it flows in front of me, and the birds are all starting there calls as they get ready for the cold of the night, I think I have found a little pocket of paradise.

It’s still getting very cold as the sun sets. The sun during the day is really, really warm and toasty but as soon as it disappears the chill sets in and we are both pretty quickly kitted up in ugg boots, beanies, trackies and a big jacket or two.

Thursday and Friday night were spent in Alice Springs at G’day Mate Caravan Park! We had to drive through the Todd River to get there which doesn’t happen very often as the Todd River is generally very, very dry.

Our first night we were given some first class local entertainment. Our Campsite was right on the Todd river so as the sun set a few locals rocked up, beers in hand, yelling and carrying on about…Well really we were not to sure. Bob sits up quite high and very easily clears the fence of the caravan park so we had front row seats to what was going on. It appeared one of the local lads had been sleeping around and Mrs Local Ladette wasn’t too happy about it when she found out. To throw a spanner in the works Mr Local was also threatening punches at another Local Lad so maybe he was sleeping with the Local Ladette???? Not really too sure??? It took us quite a while to figure out what was going on as the only words in English were the vulgar ones, so it was pretty hard trying to decipher the whole scenario! The Local Ladette felt she needed to show the young Casanova what she thought of him so in between some very colourful language, spitting, sand throwing and eventually a beer can to the head, she managed to draw blood and felt a bit better about the whole situation.

Eventually the Entertainment slowly finished, however we did get a little sneak peak into the next nights show when yet another Local ruffian decided he didn’t like the look of a bush, so decided to set fire too it. Unfortunately we have left the dramas of the Todd behind; The Finke is much more peaceful but no where near as entertaining.

So we saw the sights of Alice Town, the Todd Mall, Billy Goat Hill, Anzac Hill and The Reptile Centre. The highlight of the trip however was when we had to order a new very expensive tyre! So hopefully we don’t go though too many of them! We’ll head back into town too see a few more of the sights in a few days time.

20th July
So we are back in the big smoke of Alice Springs! The last few days have been spent in the West Mac Ranges walking through canyons, crossing rivers and scrabbling over rocks. The massive amounts of water the “Centre” (as they call it) has been receiving over the last month is huge, so most of the walks now involve river crossings as does driving from place to place. The whole area is so green it is nearly as if we haven’t left home yet! Most of the stories we heard before we came was how dusty and dry everything was going to be and like I mentioned earlier we had to drive through the Todd river the other day just to get to the caravan park!

Last night we ventured out to Dessert Park to do a Night Tour to try and see if we could find any of the creatures that are meant to be living out and about Alice springs, but don’t anymore due to People, cats and Foxes. We saw Bilbies, a few different types of Wallabies and Bandicoots, Echidnas, and this Strange noise making Bird which sounded like someone being murdered! You could imagine if you were out in the dessert by yourselves and you heard one of them in the middle of the nights you wouldn’t be getting much sleep!

The Great Central Road

Wednesday 7th July

Started on the Great central road today.
Drove from Laverton to Tjukaruru Road house for the first fuel stop, we saw so many eagles and the road was pretty good though very, very remote not much really to see but the landscape is always changing from small trees to big trees to scrubland to sandy plains so that keeps you entertained. Stopped for the night at Paradise camp, it wasn’t quite paradise but we were the only ones there and the sunset was amazing.

Thursday 8th July

Drove to Warakuna Road house with a stop off at Warburton to checkout the Cultural center and fill up with Fuel and water. The road was great the whole way however we still managed to get our first flat. Within 5 minutes an old guy in a land cruiser had pulled over to give us a hand and lucky for us he had a trolley jack and rattle gun which made the job much easier. He’s been living in Warburton for the last year working with community projects and now drives around with 4 spare tyres, a trolley jack, a rattle gun and plenty of water as he’s constantly stopping to help people out. The rest of the ride was very smooth as informed by old mate we were pretty unlucky however there are often a few flats even when the road is as good as it was because after being freshly graded it exposes plenty of sharp rocks, if you hit the wrong spot…..then bad luck.

Warakuna station had nice hot showers we met a few nice people and saw our first dingos.

Friday 9th July

Woke up early to see the weather balloon as it was released at Giles weather station where I also found my own Kc dog.

We then continued on the road and drove right through Docker River. Stopped off at a few lookout areas to check out some Gamma holes, (natural holes in the ground that collect water) and Lasseter’s cave. We Crossed the W.A Border at about lunchtime then on the Northern Territory side of the track it started to get pretty rough compared to the rest of the road. Caught out first sights of the Olgas a few hours later, they are pretty impressive. We took a walk trail around them then headed down the road to get our first Glimpse of Uluru. It was getting pretty late so we headed out of the National park to find a free camp for the night as the caravan park for charging $50 for unpowered sights.

Saturday 10th July

Went to bed Friday night with clear skies but had to wake in the middle of the night to fold away the awning because it felt like the car was going to tip over the winds were so strong. The plan was to wake up for the Sunset over Uluru but the weather was so bad we slept in and headed out late in the morning to start the 10km base walk around the rock. Then cruised over to the sunset area cooked some dinner and sat back to watch the sun set over Uluru.

Sunday 11th July

Woke up early to catch the sunrise over the rock. Instead of watching it with ten thousand other people like the night before we actually watched the sun rise all by ourselves in the sunset area (Its school holidays so to get anything or be anywhere at the moment by ourselves doesn’t happen too often). Cooked up breakfast and sat back to eat as the sun kept rising. At 10am we headed over to do the Mala guided walk near the base of the rock but only a few k’s around. Then headed to the Cultural centre to find our keys we lost on the track the day before, checked out some art and the displays then drove back out to the Olgas to do the 7km walk though the middle which was amazing! Finished up at about 2pm then back to Yulara for supplies then cruised out to Mt Conner rest area for the night. A hot Bucket shower under the stars then jumped into Bob to catch up on some sleep.

Leonora and back again.

Ropes course finished up late on Sunday and we headed into Leonora to meet up with Mum and Dad. Two nights ago we camped a few k's out of Leonora, and now we are camping in the same spot again ready to hit the great central road tomorrow morning.


Monday morning we woke up to yet another incredible view over Malcolm Dam (just outside of Leonora, where we are camping tonight). The nights are pretty cold out here at the moment, and therefore a good reason to purchase an electric blanket in Kal. Sunday night was the first night we used it and we both agree the $22.99 was very well spent!


Does this caming area resemble anything?



We headed to Niagra Dam and went for walk then headed for Menzies to have a look at my Great granddads Butcher shop which is one of the last old buildings still standing in Menzies which is pretty special. They are in the process of renovating the shop, as you can see it’s all boarded up at the moment. The front counter is still intact and would have been pretty amazing back in the day.


Brett found a few number plates at the service station on our way out of town.



From Menzies we cruised on to Lake Ballard to check out the crazy statues in the middle of the Salt Lake. The most bizarre thing is that I can’t imagine anyone ever really headed out there before the statues were constructed and now people like us head out 100k’s just to see these alien figures standing naked on a big dry lake.

This morning we packed up and Mum and Dad went one way and we went the other. One part of our holiday is over which I admit was a little teary, tomorrow we jump on the great central road and start making our way to Alice Springs.

Hanging around Leonora...

If you had asked us last month where we thought we would be in July it certainly wouldn’t be in a donger out the back of Leonora eating camp food and abseiling off mine sites. We have managed however to do just that.

Firstly, back to Thursday morning…. Marilyn managed to book us in to go underground at Bellaire, a Goldmine 30k out from Kambalda right in the middle of a Salt lake, (which makes it one of the wettest mines in the Southern Hemisphere). We arrived at 9.00am signed our lives away at the gates, then we were kitted up in overalls, gumboots, safety glasses, gas masks, head torches, earplugs, gloves, basically all safety equipment known to mankind jumped into a very dirty and rusty version of Bob and headed 470m underground. Down into the pit then down into the dark we drove, down and down. We were not prepared for was how incredibly beautiful it was down there. Most people know that by now we are very familiar with stalagmites and tites and everything else that goes with caves, however the salt crystals down in the mine were absolutely amazing! They were everywhere, even cascading down the walls of the pit before we entered the mine, was thousands upon thousands of salt crystals. (Unfortunately I couldn’t take my camera down, I have a few pics from Marilyn’s camera but they will have to be uploaded at a later date). The tour went pretty smoothly, until the end. The guide managed to get us stuck in a disused but most beautiful part of the mine which was absolutely bucketing down with salty water. The water was so salty as soon as you stepped out of the car you could taste the salt on your lips. Being a disused section and the wettest part of the mine meant to enter into it you had to drive through a massive set of orange gates which then closed behind you. They decided they didn’t want to let us back out so we sat in the cruiser water torrenting around us, while we waited for someone to some and rescue us and whisk us back to the big wild world upstairs.

Anyway back to why we are chilling out in a Donga. Thursday afternoon we Left Kambalda and headed to Kal to stay the night a Craig’s place. (Friend of Brett’s Brother.) Craig currently runs a Mine rescue training company and after a few Beers Brett and I had signed up to Vertical Cave Rescue course at a Jaguar mine 60k out from Leonora. So that’s where we are now. Yesterday morning was spent doing theory and the afternoon abseiling off the side of a nickel crusher. Today we spent the whole day undertaking rescue scenarios off the mill.

The whole experience has been pretty awesome, you don't normally have the chance to throw you self off the side of a mining site and we still have a whole day left of it tomorrow. Off to bed to catch some dreamtime and up at 4 tomorrow morning to hang off some more buildings.

Photos coming soon.......