Well, I have a thousand valid reasons for not posting a blog for ages, but I’m not going to bore you with them.
We’ve finally made it to NSW so I’ll update the last of our QLD exploring.
After leaving Townsville, we spent a few days at Mt Surround, then headed to Airlie Beach. I was there in 1979 for my first honeymoon. It had changed quite a bit! Spent a few days there and then moved on, back to some high altitude rainforest on a search for the elusive platypus. We loved Eungella with its cool misty weather and enjoyed some lovely walks. After many attempts we were finally rewarded with a platypus sighting – but no photos, so you’ll just have to believe me.
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| Airlie Beach |
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| Eungella National Park |
From there it was Mackay and Cape Hillsborough and lovely beach walks. As we were heading into school holidays, we decide to head inland. Everywhere is so busy, that we thought the hols would just awful. Unfortunately, we picked the heatwave week…
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| Enjoying a cold beer in Mackay |
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| Cape Hillsborough |
Lawrence embraced his inner nerd and did an in-depth tour of the Qantas Museum in Longreach, whilst I enjoyed 2 hours in the airconditioned cafĂ© reading my book. Day 2 saw us heading to the Stockman’s Hall of Fame – simply for the air-conditioning, but were really surprised at how much we enjoyed it. It was extremely well done.
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| QANTAS museum |
A highlight of Longreach was an amazing Italian restaurant with an incredible wine list. We had a Tuscan Sangiovese the first night and a sublime Nebbiolo from the Langhe region on night 2. It was just too hot to cook. Oh and the food was good too.
Heading back towards the coast we stopped at Maraboon Lake / Dam near Emerald. It was 39 degrees and we were melting. The dam was so low that swimming was out of the question. Day 2 we just went into town and wandered around the shopping centre aimlessly buying stuff we didn’t know we needed. Of course a pub lunch was involved with cold beer.
Next stop, the stunning Carnarvon Gorge. The roads in QLD are pretty crap and the ones around this area are just dire. Dangerously so. Deep gouges that almost pull you off the road. Not much fun in a 4 tonne Boris.
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| Part of Carnarvon Gorge |
We headed to lovely Coolum Beach on the sunshine Coast to catch up with Ken and Carol. We first met them in Ulan Ude in Siberia and then again in Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia. Being experienced long term travellers, they were very happy to be our PO box for various parcels we had delivered. Of course, few beers and meals were also enjoyed, whilst catching up on the last 10 years. Hopefully we’ll see them in WA next year.
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| Noosa Heads |
We planned to catch up with old friends of mine who now live on the Gold Coast and I haven’t seen them for 35 years! On the way we stopped for a quick wine tasting at Witches Falls in Tamborine Mountain. A disappointing experience as the staff had no clue. OK we are fussy, but I had to ask them to open fresh wines as they were past it. One of them I’m sure was infected in Brettanomyces – a result of poor winery hygiene. Oh well.
Catching up with my old friends was an absolute blast, and we’ll keep in touch from now on. It was like only a few years had passed. Great fun.
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| Catching up with old friends. A 'morning after' breakfast |
From there we headed inland and upwards to Lamington National Park. Situated at 750 metres, it was lovely and cool and we were back in rainforest. The birdlife here is amazing. We did some great walks and saw a few birds that are normally hard to spot. Hanging out with the Scotsman for 15 years, it's hard not to enjoy a spot of birdwatching. I’m still hopeless with binoculars though!
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| Regent Bower Bird |
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| Crimson Rosella |
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| Eagle |
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| Currawong |
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| Eastern Whip Bird |
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| King Parrot |
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| Sunset at O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat. |
Our last stop in QLD was a very brief foray into the Granite Belt wine region. We were blown away by the quality of the wine. Their marketing concept is ‘Strange Birds’ – they do a lot of minor Spanish and Italian varieties, and even the Georgian grape, Saperavi – a favourite of ours. We loved the wine ‘church’ showcasing the smaller producers that don’t have cellar doors, a great concept and extremely well executed. The food van produces the best toasted sandwiches we’ve ever had. The wine was so good, we sent a case home to our friend who is looking after our cellared wine.
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| Wine Church - proof there is a God. |
We’ve absolutely loved QLD and spent far longer than planned, but that’s what slow camping is all about!
Next: New South Wales.
