Well after a couple of relaxing days in Emerald and spoiling Kaye heaps for her birthday, it was off again heading a bit further north towards Cape York. The first stop for a couple days was Clermont. We stayed just out of town at a place called Theresa Creek Dam. This ended up being an excellent choice. There is no power or running water but there is hot showers, flushing toilets and lots of grass. It was a very popular spot for the grey nomads and some stay there for 2 or 3 months at a time. They do have caretakers whom do a great job keeping the place clean and tidy. They also have a movie night on Wednesdays which filled in a couple of hours. While we were in Clermont they had the Clermont Show on so that was a must do for one day. It was actually quite good and we did enjoy ourselves.
After making the hard decision to leave Theresa Creek it we moved onto Charters Towers for 4 days to have a good look around. For a small place Charters Towers does have quite a bit if history and some really great old buildings in the main street. Charters Towers was famous for its gold rush days and a lot of old buildings have survived and been restored which adds a lot of character to the town. We also went to the local rodeo grounds for a night out as they had the annual Horse of The North competition on the Saturday night. This was like a dressage for cowboys and each rider and horse had to follow a particular route around the arena and perform certain manoeuvres such as spinning in each direction, galloping and stopping quickly, going from a canter to a trot as well as other moves. It was good to watch and some of the riders and horses were pretty impressive.
We also did a day trip out to the Texas Longhorn Wagon Tour farm just out of town. As the name suggests they have Texas Longhorn cattle as well as bison and water buffalo. You get there in the morning and have a morning tea around the campfire and the host tells you the history of the place and then you get to tour around. He also makes saddles to order and they do look very impressive. For around $6000 you can have one made if you want to wait around 12 to 14 months. This place is also home to JR. JR is a Texas Longhorn that did until recently hold the world record for the widest horns measuring from tip to tip. They were just over 9ft 9inches wide. The record is now held in the USA. RM Williams also has the Texas Longhorn as his logo on all his clothing. Its worth the trip out if you are ever in the area.
From Charters Towers it was off towards a small place called Greenvale for one night. Greenvale was a nickel mining town back in the early eighties but is now really just a dot on the map. In its day it must have been really pumping but is now a small sleepy hollow. It does have some infamy though as it is home to the Three Rivers Hotel which was a poem written by Stan Coster and made famous by Slim Dusty in a song. We had a meal at the pub just to say we have done it but I was a bit disappointed in the atmosphere of the hotel, I felt they could have done a bit more to try and get people to stop for a look.
After Greenvale we headed off towards Undara Lodge to have a look at the Lava Tubes. We were told by other travellers to stop there if we had the time, and as that is what we have plenty of at the moment we decided to go for it. The lava tubes are pretty good though they only let you see a few of them and you have to do them by guided tour which is bit of a pain. They were worth looking at, though if we had known better we probably would not have stayed at Undara and just drove in for a day tour. Some of the walks around Undara were OK though they were very easy which was a pleasant change for my old bones. The caravan park at Undara was very nice and you did feel like you were bush camping but there wasn’t really a lot to do there besides the tour.
From Undara we travelled the short distance to Atherton to say hello to Janet Bradley-Ryalls. We knew Janet from Wickham and have now freeloaded in her front yard for a week while we look around the area. What a beautiful part of Australia the Atherton area is. This would have to be the greenest part of the country we have seen so far. The land seems so productive and whatever crop you look at they are all just bursting out of the ground. We have done several day drives around the district to places like Yungaburra, Herberton, Malanda and also to Cairns for a look plus a Bunnings visit. Didn’t know I had missed going to Bunnings that much. The day trip to Cairns was a nice drive down the mountains and Cairns itself was a pretty busy place. We would have liked to do the sky lift trip but ran out of time in the day so will put it on the bucket list for next time. We did visit the Amour and Artillery Museum which was very impressive and cheap, our new seniors cards worked really well for us.
There is so much to see in this area that a week here was not enough time to do it even in a small way. Hopefully we will be able to stay near the coast close to this area on our way back from Cape York as you certainly need several weeks here to see a good proportion of the sights. One thing we were hoping to see was a tree kangaroo in the wild but we weren’t lucky enough this time, maybe when we come back.
We walked up Mt Baldy which is right next to Atherton and that would have been about the second hardest walk we have done on our tip. The hardest one so far would be when Kaye tried to do me in while at the Grampians. Mt Baldy though while not very high it is virtually a ascent from bottom to top. The Curtain Fig Tree and Cathedral Fig Tree are really very impressive to look at and certainly better in real life than in a photo. I had also never seen tea growing much before and the Nerada Tea Farm was certainly impressive. The tea trees were that thick it looked like a 1mtr green carpet across the paddocks.
Well after a great week staying at Janet’s it is off again tomorrow and towards Mt Carbine. Apparently on the Grey Nomads website you can leave your van for free at the caravan park so we will take advantage of that when we leave for Cape York. Hopefully the roads are all OK so we can keep on our north bound journey, fingers crossed……….