THE UNDARRA EXPERIENCE

Our next leg of the journey is Alice Springs and it will take us a week to get there. 

It was the first real test of riding through winding mountain roads with the trailer at the back. We started at sea level and rode up to the Atherton Tablelands. Peaking at 960 metres we were travelling through the clouds! 
A fantastic experience that lasted for over an hour.

Little did we know as we headed west that later in the day we would again be riding through these clouds via Ravenshoe to Chillagoe and Undara Volcanic National Park. 

The Caravan Park has a lot of beautiful railway carriages which have now found a permanent home after many years on the rail.  They were all pretty, nestled amongst the gum trees.  Now we are really in outback Australia and it is awesome and we love it.  We saw wild pigs crossing the road as we are riding yesterday through Savannah grassland,  the habitat of several types of wallabies, kangaroos, eagles and many other types of birds, snakes and more. 

We listened to outback stories around a campfire and took a guided tour to the lava tunnels that made Undara famous.  Our fitness needed some attention and after
6 kms of bush walking we felt better, and ready to eat some more tucker. 
We did manage to take some time out during our walk to sit and watch the wild life that was in abundance.

After two nights stay in this beautiful place we are getting ready to hit the road again, travelling towards Kurumba.

THE CAIRNS CHAPTER

      We arrived in Cairns late afternoon on Friday the 20^th and checked in at Cool Waters Caravan Park. We found a site at the very end of the park, right in front of a forest patch with palm trees and lots of other vegetation.  It appeared to be a very quite spot, but as it turned out we were to discover that the nocturnal species keep you awake for hours.  The first night we did hear and see a shadow of an animal snooping around our tent. The following night the “thing“ was making a lot of noise and was suddenly inside our tent.  It looked like the biggest rat we had ever seen!   It eventually departed and the following day we were advised that it was a bandicoot, which mentally was easier to deal with.   Apart from this little creature there are bats,  birds and who knows what making all the noises throughout the night.   We were lying in bed staring up at the treetops through the net and feeling as if we were in the jungle somewhere.

     The main reason for staying in Cairns for a whole week was to visit our friend Michelle, who is dealing with some serious health issues.  It was so good to finally catch up with her and all three of us have had some very enjoyable times together, visiting Port Douglas and dining out.

     One day was dedicated to horse riding in the rain forest up in the mountains of Kuranda. The young couple operators had abandoned a city life and IT career to set up Billabong Horse Adventures and live their dream. Great tour in spite of Graeme suffering from a sore ass the following day.

     Yesterday Graeme and I had a great MC riding day, going up to Daintree on a winding beautiful road.  There we changed mode of transport and took a river cruise on the Daintree river and encountered some salt-water crocodiles in the wild. It was a fascinating experience.  We then continued our MC ride up another mountain to the Atherton Tableland and what a ride!  We continued through Mareeba, and then back towards Cairns again.  The Atherton Tableland is very beautiful and a very fertile area with mango trees, pineapple, banana, tea plantations and of course sugar cane. 
How much sugar do we eat in this country???

The weather has been very kind to us, sunny days and high 20’s and we are starting to develop a nice tan.  Today was a real highlight as we went out to Green Island and snorkelled along the Barrier Reef and saw beautiful corals and colourful fishes of all kinds. Our time here is coming to an end too soon. There is so much more to explore,  but time is limited and we have to start making our way towards Alice Springs for the HOG rally at the beginning of September.

We have enjoyed staying in one spot for a week. Setting up the trailer tent and packing it up again is time consuming even though we are getting better and better at it.  We may be escaping household work at home, but we are just exchanging it for another type of work. Keeping order in a tent is a skill we are yet to master. 

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES

We finished off our time in Brisbane in style with a night at the Sebel Hotel before launching into our camping life. Travelling up the coast from Brisbane and enjoying sunny days and
dry roads made it as safe as it can be.

Our first stay was Harvey Bay where we spent two nights. It is a town with a population of     55 000.  Tours to Fraser Island originate from here and it was quite busy with the whale-watching season.  We stayed at Pialba Caravan Park and chose a site very close to the beach. Waking up to a concert of birds in our little camper trailer was a new experience.
Eating at Australian Pubs is not a very new experience as the menu is nearly identical wherever you go, however we still thoroughly enjoyed some of the meals we have had.

Arriving at the cattle town of Rockhampton, population 60 000, we enjoyed an amazing walk along the Fitzroy River boardwalk followed by Vietnamese cuisine.  What we didn’t enjoy was our campsite at the Southside Holiday Park. It did not live up to its reputation of being a top tourist park. Lodged between a railway line, highway and a truck saleyard we didn’t sleep much for two nights and were pretty happy to hit the road again.

We are having a great time on the road, chatting, listening to music, looking at the scenery and meeting and passing trucks and caravans. Moving north we are now getting into the coal mining areas and our next stay is Mackay. A beautiful town and Andergrove Van Park is a great place to stay. Waking up in a green big field with birds and palm trees to look at is a magical start to the day. Graeme was over the moon as a pair of his favourite birds, the Plovers (masked lapwings) were caring for their 3 chicks on the field near our camper. The camera got a work-out again and the Plover daddy played injured to get Graeme away from the chicks which is their strategy as they lay their eggs out in the open.

We are getting better and better at organising our camper life and are having a ball with each other at the same time, most of the time.

A CULINARY EXPERIENCE

Travelling is a feast for the senses and new exciting things are always around the corner. Today we travelled up the mountains outside the Gold Coast to Springbrook National Park. On the way we stopped for lunch at Tokonoma Green Tea House.
 It was a delightful place, and sitting on the veranda looking out at beautiful scenery we were served a Japanese style Caesar salad and open sandwiches. A very different experience for the "egg and bacon" man which he really enjoyed. We then had great fun experimenting with our cameras, trying to capture the beauty of it all, the Japanese style of serving lunch as well as the surroundings. 

STARTING OUT ON OUR TRIP AROUND AUSTRALIA 7th August, 2010

Finally, after weeks and weeks of packing up two houses, it was time to leave on our trip,
riding out of Camden NSW on Saturday the 7th August at 1 pm. The trailer was packed to the rafters and so was the bike. It was a bit challenging as Graeme had never towed a trailer before. The trailer was swaying a bit on the first day and this was solved by repositioning the load.  Around 950 km later we arrived at the Gold Coast on our second day, staying at our good friend and fellow HOG member Gary Burton's beautiful home.  

Graeme's idea of a Perfect Holiday - visiting every Bunnings store in Australia