We finally got our new Caravan. Campers, of any kind, are in big demand here in Oz and the waiting lists for new ones are long. We picked ours up in October and have finally both found the time to set it up so we would have everything we need while traveling. It’s been fun setting it up and getting it ready. Australia has very strict laws about towing trailers so we had a lot to learn and many “T’s” to cross and “I’s” to dot.
We decided our first formal trip would be to Cairns in northern Queensland, about 1200 kilometers (720 miles) north of where we live.
We planned the trip following the A1 or Bruce Highway with overnight stays in Mackay, Townsville, and Cairns, with our stay in Cairns being two nights. Looking to mix in a little exploring we decided to find a more inland route to return by. We selected the Gregory Development Highway for that adventure. Development highways are part of a larger plan for Queensland highway development. Some are paved, some not. The Gregory, at least the part we traveled on was all paved and a fairly decent road. If you recall previous posts I describe how quickly paving ends once you depart a main road. This road was all paved but just recently so there are stories on the internet about how treacherous it is. Took a great deal of research but decided to take the road to The Lynd from Cairns, then down to Charters Towers where we planned to spend the night. Then on down to Emerald and Biloela where we planned to spend the second night. Range was a big factor in these choices because once you are inland on these Development Roads there can be stretches of six to seven-hundred kilometers of no facilities. Running out of gas along these roads is not a good thing. To tip the scales in our favor I purchased and mounted on the caravan, two twenty liter (5 Gallon) fuel containers. This extended our range for another 250 to 300 Kilometres. We have a Hyundai Tucson Diesel which normally gets exceptional milage. Howerver, once you start towing a two ton caravan, the milage drops radically, it actually doubles our gas consumption. That’s what made the fuel cans so important.
Anyhow, we got all that figured out, loaded up everything we thought we would need and headed north.
We arrived in Mackay early in the afternoon so we took our time setting up making sure we did it all correctly. Of immediate and obvious importance was the Air Conditioning we had elected to have installed in our caravan. We were traveling north but towards the equator not away from it. It is also getting into late Spring so Summer is starting to show up with high temps and very high humidity. About half way to MacKay we crossed the tropic of Capricorn … as a matter of fact, the area we traveled is called The Capricorn Region. The air conditioning worked good and was very welcome.
Once we got set up, we drove downtown and walked along the old main street to the Thursday afternoon market. It was just being set up so we settled in at a small river side Bistro and thought about what we would do for dinner.
It turns out we decided to have a selection of share servings the Bistro offered so we had plenty, a good variety, and a nice dinner. Back to the campground and our first night of sleep in the caravan.
I guess this would be a good time to mention that I did not take a lot of pictures along the way. I kept my focus on driving the Tucson and keeping the trailer in tow on the narrow, two lane road that had a fair amount of traffic on it. Besides, they would look just like the hundreds of window shots I’ve posted from our earlier trips. One thing I did notice. As we went north, everything became more tropical, lush, and green. As I mentioned, they were harvesting the Sugar Cane so there was a great deal of activity with that. Long ago they set up a series of narrow gauge railroad tracks that go all through the fields and eventually to the processing plant. There were hundreds of little cars specially designed to haul the cane on it was cut.
We left MacKay moderately early headed north to Townsville. While the area along the way to MacKay from home was mostly crops and farmland, much of the second leg from MacKay to Townsville was dry and rocky. The area is called the dry tropics and it is that. There were some sugar can fields that were being harvested but not many cattle and more rocky terrain. The east coast of Australia, especially Queensland, has several small mountain chains that run the length of the state. They start about 30 to 50 kilometers in from the coast and occur every 20 to 30 kilometers creating valleys that run north and south parallel to the coast line. There are three or four of those chains, then the land goes flat across what is called the Outback.
Townsville is largely a military town with a large Army installation there. The city is bigger than Gladstone and bigger than MacKay. Each of these cities are located on a major river that runs into the Coral Sea. The cities were originally established where larger ships could dock and unload and smaller ships or boats could take supplies, stock, and people inland. We went to the local K-Mart to buy a couple pillows. We found the ones we brought to be a bit shy of what we found comfortable. We made dinner at the caravan, took a walk, and turned in.
Made it to Cairns early in the afternoon, checked into the campground, set up, and set out for downtown. Located on the coast, Cairns is noted as the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and all it has to offer. We wanted to see the park and businesses along the sea.
The next day we went Platypus hunting. There is a small town about 40 kilometers west that has two Platypus viewing platforms. It is hailed as the best place in Australia to see Platypus. These unusual and bashful animals are very difficult to find and see, plus they have become very rare. The drive there was over one of those mountain ranges I mentioned earlier. It was 40 kilometers of uphll curves followed by downhill curves. It was one of the ways we had considered for our trip home. Anyhow, we made it to the town, found the platforms and spent about 45 minutes to an hour at each one trying to see a Platypus.
We never did see a Platypus. As I said, they are difficult to see and like looking for any wild creatures, sometimes they are just not there. Anyhow, there is a wild life park on a different route back to Cairns that we stopped at. The visit included a ride on a “DUCK” (just like Wisconsin Dells!” and a walking tour of the animals.
So that was the game park. Nice afternoon … nothing real glamorous but well presented. We left the park and returned to Cairns following the second route. Had to cross the mountains again but better road, fewer curves. Decided this was the way we were going when we left tomorrow. Meanwhile, when we got back to the city we again went downtown looking for dinner.
We had a wonderful dinner at a Greek Restaurant that we found. Our server was a young lady from Germany that was working her way around the world. Had a nice time and a great meal. The owner was even familiar with Hella’s in Tarpon Springs, Florida.
The next morning we packed up and headed out for home. We made it all the way to Charters Towers the first day. Long trip but absolutely nothing to do along the way. We stopped at every Roadhouse we came to (two of them) and filled up with fuel.. Spent the night in a nice campground, had dinner downtown at a hotel pub. Charters Towers is a very old mining town. The town, like most small towns in Australia, was well kept, clean, and pleasant.
After filling up with fuel in the morning we headed south towards Emerald, our planned second stop. As we got near to Emerald, it was still early and we were anxious to get home so we decided to go all the way to our house. We did, a long day, a little over 900 kilometers, but we made it safely home.
That was our first trip in our Caravan and our first long trip since we moved here. Many more to come. Stay tuned and Thanks for coming along..
