Purposeful Meandering Atop Oz - Week 1

After months of planning our Cape York trip, the day had finally come for us to start our trek northward. Leaving the blustery winds of the Illawarra behind felt right but leaving half the family behind didn’t feel good but knowing the girls would be joining us in a weeks’ time was reassuring.

Heading north through Sydney and towards Singleton the windstorm showed no letting up, at times the wind gusts were strong enough to move us across the road and tree branches often littered the roadside. Continuing north, we were hoping the wind would ease as we headed further away from the coast, but to no avail. By the time we reached Gunnedah the wind had eased a little but so had the temperatures, this was something that we weren’t prepared for. As it was only mid-afternoon, we decided to keep pushing north. By the time we reached Boggabri the sun was setting and we’d had enough for our first day so pulled into the showground where we took shelter from the wind in one of the sheds.

By Monday morning the wind had died off, but the temperature was in the low single digits and when you pack for a trip to the Cape the last thing you pack is winter woolies, so we quickly packed up taking shelter and in the car. Pressing northwards, it wasn’t long before the wind was back to gale force and this time it carried a layer of topsoil with it. For the better part of Monday, we drove through an endless dust-storm. At times visibility was that poor it felt like we were driving through a dirty fog. Driving into Mungindi we were alerted to a place called the "One Ton Post", after a short detour we out it was the survey marker where the NSW/QLD border goes from a straight border to the squiggly line that then traces the Tweed River and wit that we’d crossed into QLD. Pushing on with still dust in the air we stopped at Thallon where an amazing piece of artwork adorned 4 grain silos. Our day on the road concluding at the rural hub of Roma where surprisingly we managed to get a camping spot in the multipurpose gun club.

Tuesday dawned to an even colder morning than the previous day. The BOM said it was 1deg and with us wearing shorts we felt every bit of the chill. We grabbed a few fresh supplies in town before heading out to the biggest cattle saleyards in Australia. As luck would have it, it was sale day, so the yards were full of cattle and oversize cattle trucks littered the surrounding area. I said to Ethan "don’t raise your hand too quickly or you might unexpectedly own a few cattle". Sadly for us, the sales didn’t start till midday and we had to be long gone. Continuing north the landscape took on a real arid feel with signs of the drought hurting farmers in these parts. We detoured to the town of Blackwater which unbeknown to us is a huge open-cut mining region, its also home to the family of minions that line the highway. A quick pic and with more miles ahead of us we kept pushing on and soon found ourselves in Emerald, this was to be our planned overnight stop but daylight was on our side, so we kept going to the small town of Capella where we called it a day!

Wednesday was another day on the road but it felt so remote, we seemed to drive for hours without passing through a town and the only traffic we saw were the massive road-trains that would almost blow us off the road. The desolateness eventually gave way to the rural town of Charters Towers where we spent an hour or so checking out the sights which included a picturesque view over the town and heaps of WWII history. We got some advice towns further along the road for where we might stay before continuing northwards. By late afternoon we’d arrived in the town of Greenvale, which was once a thriving Nickel town. Here every building and dwelling looked the same, which was a little creepy as only 150 people lived in town. Apparently, the mining boom had long left Greenvale and all but a few locals stayed in town. We setup in the caravan park where we had our first campfire for the trip.

Thursday morning and the gps said it was only 300km to Cairns. We headed north with a planned stop at the Undara Lava Tubes. After a 30km detour the tubes turned out to be a huge let-down. We couldn’t self-explore and a guided tour cost more than a week’s wage, so we gave it a miss and headed back to the blacktop. For the first time in our trip the weather had taken a turn for the worse and we drove through some steady rain. That didn’t stop us from taking in the sights of Innot Hot Springs and Lake Eachem. Both offering a great perspective of the region. By 3.30pm we’d descended the Atherton range and were only a few km’s from Cairns. Our next task was to find some suitable accommodation for all of us. We finally settled on a van park close to town where we setup camp for the next 3 days. As the day ended 2 other families had arrived in town. Finally, our convoy was starting to take shape.

Friday dawned as a special day for me, I was off to the airport to pick the other half of the family who flew in nice and early. After a week apart it was great to have the Bere clan back together. We spent the morning socialising around camp before doing some local sightseeing around Cairns CBD and the waterfront before doing shopping for perishable items that we needed for our trek north. As the day ended, we took in the Cairns night markets while enjoying dinner on the esplanade. Returning to camp it was pleasing to see another 2 families had arrived at the van park. We all spent the remainder of the evening socialising with a few bourbons and the NRL footy finals.

Saturday was meant to start with a sleep-in, but the bird life and the planes coming and going from Cairns put pay to any thought of a sleep-in. By late morning with a hearty breakfast under our belt we headed out for some more sightseeing. We stopped at the Cairns Skyrail (very quickly), sadly the inflated prices had us quickly back in the car and heading up the coast to the beautiful Palm Cove. This place a picturesque postcard 24/7 and we fell in love with the place, it was beautiful, and we spent a few hours exploring the place, promising ourselves that we’d return some day. Heading back towards Cairns we detoured up the escarpment to Kuranda where we visited Barron Falls and the scenic railway that winds up and down the mountains. Returning to our van park its was great to see the remainder of our convoy had all arrived in town. We quickly settled into catching up on our trip so far around the pool with a beverages in hand. Our day concluded with a meal in town and the promise of our trek to the Cape starting the following day.

Week 1 of our trip was complete. Cairns was 2800km from home and it was a long week behind the wheel. Bring on next week where we start the serious part of our trip to the Cape.