Day 179 - Magnetic Island

Hi everyone, another day in paradise, well, paradise with lots of wind, and not much sun. But anyway.....

Today, Kailash and I headed to the island just out of Townsville, called Magnetic Island. Unlike most of the islands down in the Whitsundays, this island has a couple of thousand people living there, and it seemed like a nice place to go for the day.

Once arriving on the isle, we quickly jumped on the island bus, and headed down to Picnic Bay. From there we walked to the local golf course, where we played a lovely round of golf, one of the things Kailash wanted to do whilst on holidays. And yes Kailash, you beat me by 1 shot, but I still think you were cheating!!! :-)

From there, we jumped back on the bus, to go to the other end of the island, to see Horseshoe Bay. Now in normal weather, this would've been a fantastic beach area, to dive on the reef and so on, but today, it was just a place to go for a swim.

The trip back was lots of fun, bouncing around in the water. And from there, I took Kailash to the airport, where we said our good-byes.

So, I'm back on my own, and wondering what the next few days will be like.

Until then...

Day 177 - Say goodbye

Hi everyone,

With great sadness, Kailash and I said goodbye to Danni and Belinda, who had kept us entertained over the last week. With them going to Hamilton Island to fly home, and us driving back to Townsville, we said goodbye.

As for Kailash and I, not too much happened today. We drove back to Townsville, and settled back into our hotel. We also went up the top of Castle Hill, the centre-point of Townsville for lovely views.

From there we headed in to town via the casino for a huge bet, $20, before heading to a pub for a few drinks and some pool games.

As I said not an overly interesting day.

Day 176 - From Airlie Beach to Whitehaven

Hi all, sorry about the delays, too many things to do, and too many people of late. But I'm back by myself now, so I should be able to keep up to date from now on.

So today we headed out on a full day's charter, to take a look around the whitsundays. Unfortunately for us, the weather was very overcast, and also very blowy, which made the boat trips very exciting. But surprisingly, only 1 person got boat sick, and that was on the trip home.

The girls (Danni & Bee), really wanted to go to Whitehaven beach, but the first place we stopped at was Hill Inlet. This involved a 10 minute walk up a hill, where we ended up with a beautiful view of the of the whitsundays, including the wonderful whitehaven beach. What was also wonderful, was the hundreds of stingrays we could see from up there, swimming in the shallows.

After getting a glimpse at Whitehaven, the next place we headed was the beach. Now this beach is almost completely white, and has the finest, softest sand I've ever seen. Which ended up being a good and bad thing. Bad, cause it stuck to everything. We had a lovely bbq there, and a few lovely swims, and we also got to get up close and personal with a couple of the stingrays. To get back to the boat, Belinda and I decided to avoid the rubber dingy, and swam back, and as a reward, we dove off the top of the boat, back into the ocean. Lovely!!

The final task of the day was to go to the top of Hook Island, to a place called Mantaray Bay for a snorkel. Now we didn't see any Mantas, but we saw hundreds of different fish. And for a difference, one of the workers threw lots of fish food out around us, and all the fish went absolutely crazy. A fantastic sight to see.

The trip back from the islands was a little crazy. All the workers got totally wet, and we were forced to remain seated the whole time as the boat went over huge waves.

Once back on land, we headed out for dinner, as a last meal before people started leaving. I lovely day out.

Whitehaven beach

Hill Inlet

Whitehaven Beach

Day 175 - Moving on to Airlie Beach

Hi all, after only spending about 15 hours in Townsville, we have moved on, although I'll be back again in a few days. We headed to Airlie Beach, and were amazed. Our hotel/resort is really flash, on a lovely hillside over the ocean, where you can see all the whitsunday islands.

Kailash and i headed into town for very important business, the Collingwood/Hawthorn game. And whilst watching, we were introduced to having drinks with "Mother" drinks in it.

So I was very happy and excited for most of the game, until we fell behind, and then we had the chance to win it in the final moments, except for bloody "Beamer" missing an easy goal.

Whilst walking around town, I spotted the nightclub printed below, and thought of Cusco on Peru. What a lovely place!

Anyway, not long after that, I started feeling ill, and it now appears I might have a bit of a stomach bug. Hopefully it doesn't stay around too long, as we're on a cruise boat tomorrow. Doh!

Day 174 - I'm still going with this thing...

Hi all, the title is that, as I've been struggling to keep up with the blog of late, but am still going through with it. It has been a little harder, as I"ve been travelling with friends of late.

So, what did we do today? Well, we left Innisfail, with 2 new cracks in the car, and headed to Townsville. On the way, we couldn't help ourselves, and went to one more waterfall, called Wallaman Falls. Apparently this is the largest falling waterfalls in QLD, free-falling 260 metres. It was a lovely waterfall to look at from the top, but not so much from the bottom. It was a super steep walk down, and after getting about 3/4 of the way, we all bailed, and headed back to the top, now totally covered in sweat.

The drive down to Townsville was uneventful, and we found the hotel we booked to be lovely. After a little bit of "relax" time, we headed onto "the Strand" to walk along the beautiful beachfront. Belinda dragged us for miles, until we got to a rock pool, which she visited last time.

Townsville seems to be a prettier, less touristy town, and will hope to see a bit more of it when I drop Kailash back up here in a few days.

Catch ya

Day 173 - The day of the waterfalls

Hi All, I hope you are well. For me, it was the end of my time in Cairns, so the first thing to do was pick up the car from where it'd been for the last 3 nights. Now, I did park it near a park, and from the look of it, the local fruit bats thought it was a good target. There wasn't much white left in the colour of the car. So I took it to a car wash, and after $10, it looked almost clean.

Once ready, we headed out into the mountains. Now the area between Cairns and Innisfail are covered in rivers and waterfalls, and it was our goal to see most of them. Unfortunately for most of the day, the weather was pretty wet.

So, we hit the following waterfalls: Millaa Millaa Falls, Zillie Falls, Ellinjaa Falls, Mungalli Falls, and finally ended up at Josephine Falls. Unfortunately, it was a 2 km walk, so by the time we got there we were pretty wet, so we had a lovely swim.

When we got to Innisfail, a bad thing happened. Whilst parking my car, I wasn't really looking at where I was going, and drove my car into the roof. So now my pod has 2 little holes in it. Damn!!!

We spent the rest of the evening in the motel, as the weather turned worse.

Day 172 - Frankland Islands

Today we headed out on a lovely boat trip, out to the Great Barrier Reef, to the wonderful Frankland Island. This island takes about 20 minutes to walk around, and it reminds me quite a bit of Hope Island, the island I went to 10 years ago with Lance and his family.

The island was reserved just for our company, and we had less than a hundred people on it. We spent the day snorkelling over the reef, and I have to say, it was better and worse than the snorkelling I did a week ago from Port Douglas. That day had so much prettier reefs, but it didn't have many types of fish, where as today, we had so many different fish. I was swimming around with lots of Trevally, and Coral Trout, along with bumping in to a couple of turtles.

But one of the best things of the day was watching/encouraging Kailash to get into the water. All morning he spent time in the water, but didn't go in very far, but by the afternoon, we had him out about 300 metres off the cost, chasing turtles with us. And he loved it.

When we got back, we went out to dinner, before heading down to the casino, where we all lost money.

Day 171 - Cairns and up to Kuranda

Hi all, sorry about the delay again, I'm now travelling with friends, so I have more exciting things to do, and I'm not just sitting in my caravan/tent/motel room by myself. Anyway.....

Today we got up early, to go up to Kuranda, the second most popular thing to do as a tourist in Cairns. Kuranda is a small town up in the mountains, and we took the old railway (with every other tourist) to get up there. It was about a 2 hours trip, stopping along the way to check out the sites, including the wonderful Barron River falls, which I think are about 260 metres long.


Once up there in Kuranda, we spent the majority of the day just walking around, looking at all the shops. The main touristy thing we did whilst we were up there was to go to the Australian Venom Zoo, a little zoo that has all sorts of creepy crawlies in it. We got to hold snakes, lizards and turtles in there was well. Danni and I had a few photos taken of us holding a python, which was funny, as it "pooed" on both of us.

The trip back to town was a little different. We took the Skyrail, as you can see by the picture below. It was both relaxing, beautiful and scary, as it moved quite fast and make scary noises as it crossed easy tower. But we made it home savely, and went back to the hotel for a lovely swim.

Day 170 - Cairns

Hi Everyone, I hope you're all well. After writing 5 blog records in a row, I felt like a day's rest, so I apologise to all who were waiting to read it.

So, after running around in Mossman, getting a few things sorted here and there, I headed up to Mossman Gorge to have a walk and a climb. Unfortunately, there was some work going on, so I had to take a shuttle bus up into the hills, which added a bit of time to it all.

The Mossman Gorge area is lovely, a river running through the dense rainforest. I'm not sure why it's called a gorge though. I spent about 90 minutes up there, walking on a lovely trail, trying to avoid the hundreds of "tour" people there. Dan, I tried to get there early, but I guess not early enough.

From there I headed to Cairns, where I caught up with my friend Danni, Belinda and Kailash. They'd organised a hotel, and it's lovely. The only complaint I can put to it is the fact that I can't park my car in the car park, it's too tall. And this caused a few issues. I had to park the car about 10 minutes away, right next to a park. And there's hundreds to bats in the area. I'll take a photo in a few days, to see what damage the bats do.

The rest of the day involved catching up with friends, and walking around town. They have a lovely beach pool here, since you cant swim at the beach, and there were hundreds of people in it. We also went to a few bars as we walked around. I have to say, this is the most touristy town I've been in on my travels. The only other town I've been to in my whole life, that has more souvenir shops is the gold coast.

Anyway, we're off to do the Sky Rail tomorrow, so that should be fun. Catch ya

Mossman Gorge

Me and Bee

Day 169 - Cape Tribulation

Wow, this is my 5th blog entry for tonite. Damn not having internet connectivity for a few days.

Anyway, after recovering from the poor win by the Pies yesterday, including drinking lots of beer and cocktails, we headed up the coast to check out Cape Tribulation. This involved a number of stops during the day, firstly at the lookout point near home, where we could see the mouth of the Daintree River. Lovely.

From there we did two walks, the first deep into the Rainforest and Mangroves, the second to the Cape Tribulation beach itself. Hey Kathleen, was this the beach where you went swimming but then found it not safe from Crocs???? lol. Such a lovely area.

We then headed to an Exotic Fruit Farm, where we got to try 10 fruits you wouldn't normally eat. It was lots of fun, although I think the host was enjoying herself too much on fruit. From there we headed to two different ice-cream places, both creating their own bio-organic ice creams. To be honest neither of them were that good, but you have to try them.

We then headed home, where I loaded up my car, thanked everyone for their time, and headed off on my own again. I'm now in Mossman, a little town, with not much to do in it. I've said goodbye to 3 friends, and with catch up with 3 more tomorrow in Cairns.

Good night everyone.

Day 168 - Port Douglas and the Pies

OK, for all those people who're not interested in fishing, you'll be happy today, we didn't do any fishing. Instead, after a lazy morning, we headed in to Port Douglas for a little look around. This was fine with me, as in my 2 nights there before, I didn't actually get to see too much, as I was both too busy, and a bit lazy around the pool.

The first thing I noticed when I got there was that there were so many more shops than there was 10 years. I guess Port Douglas has grown a bit in 10 years. So many shops, for all sorts of people. There was also a number of nice bars, but it wasn't really the right time of the day.

We headed down to 4 Mile Beach, the crocodile-safe beach of the area, but it wasn't overly pretty. Still , there were hundreds of people down there.

From there we headed to the Marina, where we organised lunch at one of my favourite chains, Hogs Breath. Unfortunately their steaks for lunch aren't cooked for 18 hours, and because of that, it wasn't that good.

From there we headed back "home", where we played pool, and threw the frisbee (the first time in my trip), before settling in to watch the TV. No, not the election, but the Collingwood/Adelaide game. And what a bad game it was. We won, but only just, and it was ugly. We better play better if we're going to beat Hawthorn next week, but regardless, we finished on top of the ladder. (hey Jacqui, what were those bets I had with Mio and Anu???).

Anyway, we're off to Cape Tribulation tomorrow, so it should be another nice and relaxing day. Catch ya

Day 167 - Fishing the Daintree River

Hi Guys,

Following on from yesterday's fishing trip, today we headed out onto the Daintree River, to do a bit of river fishing. And to help us with this, we jumped onto our mate Jamie's boat. The last time I met Jamie was 10 years ago, when he took Lance and I on a 2 day trip out to the Barrier Reef, to do one of the most memorial things I've ever done, diving and fishing the reef.

Anyway, I digress. So Lance, Flo and I had a lovely day's fishing. Lucky me, I got the first fish this time, a lovely Trevally, which gave a lovely little fight. But after that things went a little quiet, unless your name is Flo. She caught the next 9 fish, all bream and grunters, but with each one, her confidence grew. Not bad for a girl who felt sick the whole day yesterday on the boat.

Luckily Lance got onto a fish after a few hours, a nice little grunter as well.'

As we were packing up from one fishing spot, one of the rods went off, and gave us a fight for the next 20 minutes. The line kept running, and I had to swap the rod with Lance just to give our arms a chance. It became apparent pretty early it was either a shark or a ray, and it ended up being the latter, it being about 6 ft long. With it near the boat, we pulled the hook, and it swam away healthily.

Day 166 - Fishing the Great Barrier Reef

Lance and family had done well by me. For the next 2 days, we're going to go on fishing charters, and today we had a full day charter out on the reef. So we left the daintree river, after laying down a few crab pots, and collecting some live bait. We went out to Snapper Island, and from there we spent the next hour trawling for fish. It didn't take long to get onto one, Lance ending up catching a 3 foot reef shark.

After trawling for a while, we headed out to do some reef fishing. Just to let you know, the weather was pretty bad, and it didn't take long for me to get completely wet. Our first fishing spot didn't yield too much, so we moved on, going up near Cape Tribulation. And it was almost immediate that the fish began to bite. Over the next few hours we brought in a number of Mackeral, all sorts of different fish, and a truck load of Nannigai, some of which were over 2 feet long.

On the way back to the car, we picked up the crab nets, which held about 10 mud crabs. (Lance ate one of those that evening.) . We also spotted a few crocs, fancy that!!

Anyway, we're on another charter tomorrow, and hopefully we head up river. I still haven't got a Barra, and I know the chances are slim but..

Day 165 - heading to the Daintree

Hi all, today I headed south, after going as far north as was planned. A small part of me did want to keep driving up to Cape York, but I don't think my car would have liked it much.

So instead, I drove south to the Daintree, going the coastal dirt road treck that I missed out on doing 10 years ago. And it was a fun drive. I'd talked to a number of people the day before, and they said it was fine, as long as I went at low tide, as there's a river crossing that's tidal. And after about an hour's drive, I made it to the Aboriginal town of Wagul Wagul, where the Bloomfield River was. And I didn't even need to put the car in 4WD. Unfortunately I planned it too well, as it was completely low tide, and there was no water on the bridge at all. Doh!

So I left Wagul Wagul, and that's where the fun began. For most of the next 2 hours, I rarely moved the car out of second gear, sometimes even having to go in 1st to get up some really steep hills. The trip also involved 4 creek crossings, 2 of which I had to walk through first to check out. Luckily they were just less than knee deep, so the xtrail got through them well. I did feel a little worried for the Toyota Camry car that I overtook though, I'm not sure if it would have made the distance.

So I'm now at Lance's Dads house, and am relaxing very well. I've set up my tent, and will sleep in that for the next few nights, before heading to Cairns.

Catch ya

Day 164 - Ai Ai Captain......Cook

Hi all, I hope you're all well. Today I drove to Cooktown, a lovely 3 hour drive. And an interesting drive. After coming into Rainforest territory 2 days ago, I drove out of it today. Apparently the main road to Cooktown doesn't involve staying in the mountains/near the coast.

Anyway, I'm now in Cooktown, the birthplace of English Australia. This is where Captain Cook found Australia, after being stuck in the reefs for 50 odd days.

So of course I was going to go to the Captain Cook Museum. But funnily enough, only 2 of the rooms (of about 20 in total) were based on Cook himself, which was dissappointing. And they were set up showiing pieces of the Endeavour that were found some years ago.

After going to the museum, I did a walk around town, where I saw a statue of Mr Cook. I also bumped into a few people who "knew a thing or two" about fishing in town, telling me 2 Barra were caught off the Wharf yesterday.

So I headed to the wharf, with bait and live-bait lures in hand, with the hopes of catching a big fish. If you look at the picture below, you'll see the beauty I caught. OK, so all I caught was a bait-fish, but it was lovely.

I'm catching up with Lance, Flo and Dan tomorrow, but to get there I'm taking a pretty rough road, having to drive through a river. Hopefully you'll read my adventures tomorrow.

Day 164 - Me and the Great Barrier Reef

Ah, the Great Barrief Reef. What can be said? Beautiful, brilliant, warm water....

So, as you guessed, I went to the GBR today. I have to say, it's a big thing here in Port Douglas. The boat I went out on had about 70 people on it, and there were at least 5 other boats doing the same. But it was a lovely boat, having 3 levels, so I could get lots of sun (I got sunburnt for the first time in ages).

We did 3 snorkels on the boat, all on slightly different reefs. The first one what fantastic, the reef was beautiful and so full of different shapes and colours. There were plenty of fish, although I have to say they were mainly parrot fish and wrasse (up-yas!!!). The best thing was the 1 1/2 metre long wrasse that came up to everyone, and was so friendly you could pat it.

On the second dive, I took of my wetsuit, as I was finding the water quite warm, so I went out in just my budgies (no, I'm not Abbott). After feeling slightly uncomfortable dressed that way, I decided it was the best, as I got to dive so my deeper, and move around so much more freely.

On the 3rd dive, I found about 10 wrasse, all about the 1 metre in length. I followed them for about 10 minutes before other people started finding them as well. And probably the best find came in this dive. I found Nemo, well about 10 Nemos. Such pretty little things, I wonder what they taste like.

So after the snorkelling day, I did the only thing I needed to do, I went for a swim in the pool.

So, I'm off to Cooktown tomorrow, the birthplace of Australia, from a James Cook perspective. Catch you soon.

Day 162 - Finally out of the Outback, and into paradise

Hi All, so, as you can see, I've got photos today, I didn't stupidly delete all my pics. I still haven't worked out hot to restore them of the camera SD card, but it might happen.

This morning I ran around Urdana, trying to get a few photos again. Unfortunately you're not allowed to go to all the sites, but at least I took a few pics of the campground/resort. Once complete, I hopped in the car, and officially drove out of the "outback". I have to say, it's soooo nice to get back into the green tree environment, and away from the red dirt.

I'm now in Port Douglas, but to get there, I drove through a few towns. I visited both the Millsteam and Mini Millstream falls, 2 lovely waterfalls with little walking tracks. I went into the town of Atherton, a lovely town up in the rainforest hills around Cairns, and could actually think of staying longer, but I have an agenda for the next few weeks.

Just outside of Mareeba, I stopped in at the Mt Uncle Distillery, where they make different sorts of liquer. Such a hard place to go to, considering I'm driving, but some of the stuff there was really nice. The "Sexy-cat" liquer was a personal favourite, it'll go great with Champagne.

I then drove on to Port Douglas, and checked into my resort, and I have to say "Oo-la-la". Not only do I have 2 bedrooms, a living area, kitchen, bath and spa, I also have my own outdoor area, that opens straight on to a 150 metre pool. This place is great, the only downside is that it's about a 5 minute drive to the centre of town. In case you're wondering, the place is called the Pool Port Douglas Resort.

I'm off on a full day snorkelling trip tomorrow, so I've got my underwater camera, as well as my normal camera. Hopefully I'll get a few good shots. Catch you later.

Day 161 - Undara National Park

Hi everyone, what was going to be a lovely day, ended up with a complete stuff up. I accidently deleted all my photos from today, only about 90 of them, of all the things I've seen and done today at Undara.

So what is Undara. Well it's the location of all these lava tubes, the biggest collection on the world. Apparently millions of years ago, we had hundreds of volcanoes occur in this area, and the end result for us is that there's all these caves now, some hundreds of metres long to go and explore. And that's what I did. I took a full day tour of the area, and it took us to 5 different locations. The first being climbing an old volcanic crater, and the rest being exploring all the caves created by these events.

Once again, very sad about the photos, it would have explained things so much better.

danni - half day only takes you to 2 events, Windmill and dead zone, but it might be enough.

NOTE: I've found this software called CardRecovery, which might help me recover those pics. I just need to work out how to map my camera as a Drive Letter. Any ideas???

Day 160 - Moving out of the Outback...

Copperfield Gorge

Hi Everyone, I hope the last day of the week has treated you well. Go Pies!!!

As for me, another day, another day's travel. My plan was to drive from Croydon to Mt Surprise today, in the direct route, but upfortunately a couple of the things I was going to do weren't open. So when I got to Georgetown, I spoke to the locals, and they suggested I go south, and add an extra 200km to my trip. I said yes, why not.

So the target was a place/feature called Copperfield Gorge, what they didn't tell me was that about 90% of the trip was on dirt roads, including travelling through heaps of river-beds, some which actually had water in it. But none-the-less, it was an enjoyable trip.

I found the gorge, sorry, not many road signs, and enjoyed the location. Nothing like the Bungles,Katherine Gorge or the like, but still a pleasant place. I got to walk all the way around the gorge, i.e. on both sides of the river, as there wasn't much water flowing. I even saw a number of fish in the water, but today was an anti-fish day.

So now I'm in Mt Surprise, and looking forward to tonite and tomorrow. Tonite....Collingwood vs Essendon (and Cade, the bet is on!!), and tomorrow, I'm going to run through on old Volcano, and then spend the night in a tram. Most likely, I won't have internet connectivity up there, so stay tuned, I'll write to you from Port Douglas.

Have a lovely weekend.

Go Pies!!!

Day 159 - By Karumba

Hi all,

There's not too much to report today. I woke up to the sound of gale-like winds, and one look outside proved that. Regardless, I headed out to the mouth of the Norman River, for one more attempt at Barra fishing. Even though the weather was pretty bad (but blue skies), there were still a few people out there, and one older woman had even caught 2 baby barra that morning. Unfortunately for me no such luck. A bream and a toadie were all I got.

So I drove about 220km today to get to the town of Croydon. Croydon is one of those towns that "used to be busy" back in the 1900's, when gold was found, but now, it's just a stopping point for lots of people. I did find a lake quite near it, so went fishing for about 2 hours, but with no luck there either. At the end of the day, I put my rods away, after cleaning them up. Unless Lance's dad's friends can help us out, I think the Barra can be labelled at "got away", just like the Murray Cod and Mullaway.

Anyway, I hope I have more to report tomorrow, this seems like a short day.

Day 158 - Ai Karumba!!!

Hi everyone, it was a lovely day for me today. Apart from the wind being really blowy, it was almost perfect weather. Also, I was only driving about 70km to get to Karumba. Does everyone think of the Simpons when they read that town name?

So, Karumba, at the very edge of the Gulf of Carpentaria. A huge town of about 500 people. And about 500 people just in my caravan park, one of about 10 in town. My goal of Karumba was to go fishing, and that's what I did, on a charter boat. And that this moment, I have to state the obvious, I'm not going to catch a Barramundi, here or anywhere, it's just not meant to happen.

Anyway, the charter trip was nice, the boat was roomy, there was hardly any swell, but unfortunately, there's was also no fish. For the whole afternoon, all I caught was a Jewel fish, and a toadie. Yep, even up here, toadies get around. The other 9 people on the boat didn't do any better, with about 8 catfish being caught. The only keepable fish for the day was a King Salmon.

Anyway, the other thing I did today was sit on the beach at sunset. This has to be one of the top 5 places in Australia to watch it. So much so, one of the pubs here is called the "Sunset tavern", oh, and my caravan park I'm in is also called the Sunset Caravan Park.

So tomorrow, I head back inland, on my way to Port Douglas and beyond.

Until nex time......Go Pies!!

Jewel Fish

Day 157 - And then there was Normanton

Good evening/morning,

Another day in paradise for some, another day at work for others. So today I left the roadhouse, having stayed in another shipping container. I do have to mention one story though from last night. So the room didn't have a bathroom, so I had to go to the public bathroom, but alas, at about 10pm, the weather turned really stormy, so I had to run to the bathroom. And that's when I found out how slippery those Cane Toads are on bare feet. The funny thing about it was, the toads where trying to get out of the rain as well.

Anyway, I headed to Normanton today, and funny, this little town of about 1000 people sits on the Norman river. Who is the Norman person? So about 2/3's of the way there, a big ute overtook me, with 2 dogs in the back, which is fine, as I'm not really into driving fast. About 3 minutes later, I see 4 little pigs running across the road, and the ute pulls up fast, the driver gets out, and lets the dogs out for a run. With 30 seconds, one of the dogs brought back a pig in it's mouth. I guess that's what country boys find fun. At least he didn't have to pay for dinner.

So what is Normanton famous for? Well, probably the biggest thing is crocodiles. They've got the record for the largest croc ever caught/killed. At 8.6 metres long, it's huge and to celebrate, they have a life-size statue of it in town. Huge!

I spot to a few locals and they advised me of where/when to fish, in the evening off the bridge, but it didn't really work for me. I did catch a catfish, and saw a few tom tom fish, but still am yet to hook of a barra. Maybe it was not meant to me.

Anyway, one final barra attempt tomorrow, on a fishing charter, but after investigation, I think this charter will focus more on sharks and salmon.

Day 156 - The Burke and Wills Roadhouse

Hi Everyone, I hope all is well. For me, I've moved on from Mt Isa and the rodeo, and am now staying at a Roadhouse, called Burke and Wills, which is the only building in town. A very quiet place, but at least there's a few caravans around.

So before leaving Mt Isa, I did the right thing, and put my vote in. Guess what, in the senate, you can vote from the Australian Sex Party. What the hell is that? I voted for the Shooters and Fishers party instead.

When I got to Cloncurry, I stopped for lunch and a little look around. Does anyone know why Cloncurry is famous?? Let me give you a hint, it has something to do with the $20 bill. John Flynn, created the Flying Doctors service from here, and as a reward was placed on the $20. So I went to the museum that's set up here, which showed all the processes and difficulties he went through to get it working.

So now I'm in B&W, with the main sound the Bower Birds flying and screetching around town. I'm off to Normanton tomorrow, then Karumba, and will hopefully get a chance to catch a Barra along the way.

Catch ya

Day 155 - Mt Isa, part 2

OK, for starters, I didn't wake up feeling too bad, but then again, I didn't feel that great either. Once I managed to get myself out of my room, right on 10am, which is unlike me, I went for a walk to clear myself up. I found a place to have breaky, which was really full, and it wasn't long before I was chatting away with a girl, who was part of one of the bands that played in town last night. It was lovely to have this chat, and sad when all her friends turned up.

Anyway, with a full stomach, and feeling much better, I headed in to town and went to the Underground Hospital. OK, in WW11 the people of Mt Isa decided they needed a place to go to if the Japanese attacked here (they never did). So the local miners spent a few weeks digging out a lovely tunnel where the hospital could go to. OK, this is where it goes bad. I went to take photos, and my camera died, and I couldn't fix it.

So I headed off to Harvey Norman, and bought a new one. Ok, it was labelled as $329, for a 12 megapixel camera, but I bargained them down to $285. But when I paid, they only asked for $185. As I said BARGAIN!!!

So with new camera in hand, I headed to the Fossil Centre, to few lots of fossils that have been found in the area. Apparently about 200 new/old animals have been found in this area.

From there I headed to Lake Moondarra, in the search of a Barra. But to no avail, the lake wasn't very nice and I think the fish thought the same thing.

So now, I'm planning for the next week ahead. I don't think I'll be in network range for the next week, as I head up to the Gulf of Carpentaria. I'm very much looking forward to the town of Karumba, just because it's name reminds me of the Simpsons.

Catch you soon.

Day 154 - Yee Ha, it's Rodeo time

Hi Y'all, it's Rodeo time, so strap on ye're chaps, grab your horse and get moving.

Well, almost. So in my travels there's been times when I wish I had've done a bit of research. This is one of them. Yesterday I got told that there was a rodeo on town in Mt Isa, but I don't think I fully understood this one. Apparently this one is the biggest rodeo in the southern hemesphere.

So I drove to Mt Isa, with a bit of nerves, not sure what I was expecting. And after spending time finding the tourist centre and accommodation, I headed in to the rodeo. My first feeling of the place was a small Royal Melbourne Show, with rides at one end, music stands at the other, and show bags being sold. The next thing I noticed was that everyone, except me, was wearing cowboy hats. Very attractive.

So I spent about 4 hours at the rodeo, and saw lots of different activities, like riding bulls and horses, chasing calves and sheep with lasoos, and sprints. Lots of fun, and interesting, in that all the events were done by both men and women. I even managed to see one of the "clowns" get run over by a bull, nothing too bad, but it did stop the activities for a few minutes.

After leaving the rodeo, I headed to the pub, to spend the next 4 hours watching first the rugby union, and the the Collingwood/Geelong game. Both exciting games, but I did end up a little drunk. And what a great result, Pies on top of the ladder, and most likely to stay that way now.

G O P I E S !!!!!

Day 153 - 10/4 buddy, we're now in Queensland

Hi everyone, just to let you know, the 10/4 comment has nothing to do with Queensland. It's actually to do with the number of snakes I've seen so far. I've seen 10 snakes in total, and have run over 4 of them on the road. To be honest, I've seen 8 of my 10 snakes on the road, some of them have been a little more physical than others.

So I left the lovely town of Tennant Creek today, one of the biggest towns for domestic violence on Australia. No crazy screams this morning at 4am, but they were still going at 11pm when I went to bed.

I had a 470 km drive today, to get to Camooweal. Just to tell you, I've done almost 2000km since Tuesday morning, more than 200km more than the distance I travelled with Steve and Nancy, and I spent 2 weeks with them. I can understand why I'm hating driving at the moment. At least I only have 180km tomorrow.

The drive wasn't eventful at all, except for 2 things. 1. seeing my 10th snake, a little sucker on the road, and 2. I bumped into 2 couples who've just come from Mt Isa, where I'm going tomorrow. Apparently Australia's biggest Rodeo is happening there this weekend, so I might no be able to find any accommodation, and if I do, it'll be expensive as. BUt it'd be nice to see a rodeo.

After getting to Camooweal, I drove the 25 extra kms to get to the National Park, where they had 2 lovely caves. Good caves, but I'd need a rope and friends to go use it.
So now I'm back in town, it's very quiet (thank god!!), and am looking forward to a relaxing evening.

Just getting ready for tomorrow.

Day 152 - And the days keep ticking.

Hi all, well you'd think after a long day's drive, I'd have a nice long sleep, the motel room was nice, and the bed was the best I've been in for months. But no, that didn't happen, thanks to the "locals". High pitched screaming was the go for last night, even at 5am. Hopefully they're all tired tonight, and go to bed early.

Anyway, I left Tennant Creek, to take a day trip down south. My first target was the Devils Marbles. Not too sure what I expected, I just remember seeing it in my travel books months ago, and saying I needed to go.




As you can see, lots of medium sized rocks to walk and climb around. It was still very nice, and I met some lovely people in the process.

I then headed to Wycliffe Wells, a one shop town, with a difference. The roadhouse is famous for UFO sitings, and has made it a place for all the tourists to stop at. Lots of newspaper clippings, as well as the standard "fake" aliens and so on.

I then headed back to Tennant Creek, where I headed the other way, i.e. north. I then did the following: Headed to the Anzac Hill lookout (boring), drove to Kunjarra (Pebbles, a poor version of the Devil's Marbles), and finally to the Lake Mary Ann. If the wind wasn't blowing so big, I'd have probably tried fishing there.

Anyway, planning on getting an early night's sleep tonite, just in case I get woken up again at 5am. Until next time (note: probably won't be online tomorrow, going deep outback, but then on to Mount Isa to find a pub on Saturday to watch the Collingwood/Geelong game. Hopefully it's time for a Pies win.

Day 151 - On to Tennant Creek

Hi everyone, not too much to tell today. I drove approx. 570km today, and although I could drive at 130km/h, it seemed like one of the longest drives I've ever done. Might be a little bit sick maybe.

A couple of things of note:

1. I hate large trucks/road trains - why? Cause when they drive really fast and go near the side-lines, they flick up stones. One such group of stones hit my windscreen, I now about a 20cm crack in the screen, along with about 10 little specks out of it. Hopefully it lasts long enough for me to get somewhere where I can get it fixed. Anita, my windscreen looks like yours now.

2. I've found the most expensive fuel so far. At $1.97 a litre, I'm glad I filled up about 200km earlier. But this now leads into a more expensive time for me, as I head up toward the Gulf of Carpentaria. I reckon in the next week, I'll be paying $3 a litre. But it's only for a short time, I hope.

So now I'm in Tennant Creek, a very strange town. With about 85% of the population being aboriginal, and about 50% of all the shops closed down, it's a very attractive town. One of those places not to go walking around at night I think. I hope the car's OK, I couldn't get it into my motel room. Doh!

Off to see the Devils Marbles tomorrow. Should be a nice relaxing day.