Our Journey Along The Savannah Way Commences

As mentioned briefly in my previous blog, ‘The Savannah Way’ traverses Australia’s north.  We will be travelling from east to west starting in Cairns, QLD and finishing up in Broome, WA.  The route will take us across several distinctly different regions.  In the order that we will cross them, they include:

1. The base of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland
2. The Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland and Northern Territory
3. The ‘Top End’ in the Northern Territory, and;
4. The Kimberley in Western Australia

This post describes the first stage of the journey.

Day 1

Immediately upon turning to the west from Cairns we needed to drive up and over the local coastal range and rainforest.  This was a brief but steep and twisty climb which the rig handled with ease and we were soon passing through the town of Mareeba to continue across ‘The Tablelands’ and on into what lay beyond.

On the inland side of the ranges are ‘The Tablelands’.  I am not sure if the region is called The Tablelands because it is flat (probably not because it is still quite hilly), or because they grow a lot of fruit and vegetables up there for the table.  Anyway, as the land flattens out the rainforest transitions firstly to bananas then to sugar and coffee plantations then to a tropical stone fruit growing region (mainly avocados & mangos).  As you get further away from the coast it is evident that the rainfall being received reduces rapidly and after not too long the fruit and vegetables are replaced by the cattle country that stretches out for the remainder of  the crossing of the base of Cape York Peninsula.

Not far into cattle country we came across another of the Bush Pubs featured in our book.  This one, at Yappa Junction, was the Espanol Hotel.  As the Espanol is no longer a functional pub we couldn’t get the publican to sign their page so we just took a couple of photos of the old bar to prove we had been there and moved on. 4 pubs down, 52 to go!

The Español Pub is more of a museum than a pub nowadays

The road was not too bumpy so long as you drove to the conditions but it was very dry and dusty.  The dust from other vehicles on the road, which were thankfully few, just hung in the air like a fog and reduced visibility for several minutes.  We made our first camp at about 3pm to make sure we were off of the road before the sun started to get low, the shadows got long and the roos and cows came out.  We also consciously chose a camp location on the ‘upwind’ side of the road near a creek crossing in order to keep the dust kicked-up from passing cars and trucks to a minimum.  A total of just 4 vehicles went by during the remainder of the day and the night so we didn’t get too much of a dusting.

Dust hanging in the air near our camp long after a vehicle passed by

Day 2

We were on the road early the next day and made steady, uneventful progress towards our next overnight stop beside the Gilbert River.  We found a nice spot high up on the bank and made camp.  Being high on the bank was a good idea as we were now in crocodile country and it wasn’t too long after settling in that we saw several crocs in the river.  While the crocodiles we saw were just ‘Freshies’ (Freshwater crocodiles as opposed to the mean, nasty and dangerous to life and limb Saltwater Crocodiles, or ‘Salties’), it was a good reminder about where we were and what we need to be aware of at all times.

'Freshie' sunning itself on the bank of our Gilbert River campsite

Day 3

As our camp was a nice one and we were not in any hurry we decided to stay where we were for another night.  It turned out to be good thing as we were got to watch the local station (ranch) hands muster several hundred cattle.  They used motorcycles, quad bikes, 4WD vehicles and two helicopters to drive the herd from one side of the river to the other.  It was quite the sight to see!

Helicopters, motorbikes & quads drove the herd across the Gilbert River

Day 4

Finally, after almost 800km, 600km of which is corrugated dirt road), we emerged at Karumba on the shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria.  The main industries in Karumba are tourism (people like us escaping the colder southern winter) and prawn fishing.

Karumba is a magnet for Grey Nomads escaping the cold southern wintersand is famous for its great fishing and spectacular sunsets

The weather in Karumba was great!  30C in the day and not humid at all.  Perfect dry season weather.  While here we decided to check out what all rave reviews about the fishing were about.  Not being mad keen fishers we did not bring a ‘tinnie’ (small towable aluminium boat with an outboard motor) with us like most of the other residents and tourists in the town so we booked couple of places on a half-day fishing charter.

We boarded our boat just as the sun was coming up

The charter boat set off at 7am with the skipper and 5 other customers on board and after a short time we dropped anchor in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria and in went our lines.  The dominant catch in these waters at this ‘cooler’ time of the year is mackerel so that is what we rigged up for.

Heather was the first pull something into the boat.  It was not a mackerel but a baby shark!  After a photo it went back into the sea.

Heather was the first to land anything into the boat - it was a baby shark!

Not too much later several fishers yelled ‘Fish On!’ indicating there was a school of mackerel around the boat and there were soon a number of mackerel in the cooler!  I managed to land one as part of the early action too!

The fishing ebbed and flowed throughout the morning with periods of no action typically followed by a flurry of cries of ‘Fish-On!’ before things went quiet again.  The lulls in the action resulted in plenty of folks uttering WTF? - Where are The Fish?! (sorry - couldn’t help myself).

Heather enjoying the calm water and the great weather during a lull in the action

By the time we returned to the boat ramp at noon the group of happy fishers had collectively landed 21 mackerel.  One person had caught 7 himself and as Heather and I only had one between us he gave us a couple of his to take back to the caravan.  His wife was at the boat ramp to meet him and said she didn't want that much fish so that may also have had something to do with his generosity!

Me and my Mackerel!

Mackerel fillets were prepared by the skipper when he did a filleting demo

One of the fish caught was filleted by the skipper as part of a filleting demo.  Heather battered and fried it up for an ‘as fresh as it gets’ Fish & Chip lunch the next day.  The others we gave to friends of ours that live in Karumba as the freezer was still pretty full from our restock in Cairns.

Stage 1 of the Savannah Way was fun and nicely wrapped up in Karumba by relaxing with a drink after a hard day of fishing while watching the sun set into the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Heather enjoying a glass of wine at the Sunset Tavern while
watching the sun sink into the Gulf

There was a sunset like this (or better!) every evening we were in Karumba

In the next episode of WTF? - Where are The Farrows?! we move ever westward towards and then into Australia’s Northern Territory.

R&R (Restock and Repairs) in Cairns, FNQ

Greetings and salutations dear readers from tropical Cairns in Far North Queensland (FNQ)!

After a couple of weeks traversing a few hundred kilometres of corrugated dirt roads to detect for relics & gold and fossicking for gemstones in north Queensland’s Etheridge Shire it was time for some R&R.  Not R&R as in Rest and Recreation (as this is what we now do on a daily basis - it is a tough life but someone has got to do it), but R&R as in Restock and Repairs!

While en-route from Etheridge Shire to Cairns we passed two more of the Bush Pubs featured in our book.  The first was the Einasleigh Hotel in Einasleigh.  Much of its claim to fame is that the Savannahlander train service, which runs weekly through Einasleigh on its way between Cairns and Forsayth, is renowned as the only Queensland train that will stop outside the pub upon request!

Just ask the Savannahlander Train to stop and it will do so outside of the Einasleigh Hotel!

Inside the Einasleigh Hotel for a beer and to have our Bush Pubs book signed

The second of the bush pubs we came across on our way to Cairns was the ‘Oasis Roadhouse’ at Lynd Junction.  This pub boasts that it is the smallest bar in Australia and after visiting, I believe it!  Standing at the bar you can touch the far walls, front to back and side to side, without fully stretching out your arms!

Heather touching the bar and the 'far' wall of Australia's Smallest Bar without having to fully stretch her arms.
I took the photo from the doorway and could touch the wall behind Heather at the same time!

Now, back to the R&R story...

We still had plenty of food in the larder but the beer and wine was low (read ‘dry’).  I also wanted to make some adjustments to the tow hitch ahead of us commencing our east to west crossing of the country from Cairns (in Queensland) to Broome (in Western Australia) via Darwin (in the Northern Territory) along a route known as the ‘Savannah Way’.  You can take the easy (but still long) 3,800km route and travel on sealed highway all the way, or, as will be the case for us, the more adventurous ‘Alternative Savannah Way’ which will be a journey of about 4,200 km, much of it on rough dirt roads.  To better manage the ups and downs that come with entering and exiting creek and river crossings and the corrugations expected on the dirt roads along the way I wanted to get a more ‘dirt-friendly’ tow hitch.  Should be easy enough.

We will be travelling from east to west across the Savannah Way over the next few weeks.
(if you click on the photo it will enlarge a bit - hopefully enough for you to read if you want to)

The re-supply part of the visit was simple.  Just visit the grocery stores and stock up on consumables.  Done.

Sourcing the dirt friendly tow-hitch was simple as well although some unexpected repairs to the tow bar on the ute were a little more involved.  To get things fixed properly I booked the ute in to get the ‘dirt towing tongue’ fitted and the repair work done the next morning.

The repairs were necessary because:

1. There was some deformation of the tow tongue housing itself.  Apparently, poor initial fitting of the weight distribution hitch arrangement when we first purchased the caravan had resulted in some ‘slop’ in the connection rather than it being a tight fit.  Over time, the housing for the towing tongue has been ‘stretched’ or ‘expanded’.  It was 50mm W x 50mm H when new but was now 52mm W x 56mm H).  This would have gotten progressively worse at an increasingly rapidly rate on rough roads and needed immediate repair.
2. In addition to the stretched tongue housing the mechanics also reported that of the 8 bolts holding the tow bar to the ute, 1 bolt was missing altogether and the remaining 7 were loose!

Glad to now have the tow bar fixed and the vehicle back in shape for safe travel during the next leg of our journey we enjoyed a couple more days just looking around Cairns and the nearby coastline.  We savoured a leisurely ‘big breakfast’ at a beachfront cafe as tourists do and then took a nice walk along the Esplanade to work off some of the food that just went in!

We took our time over a delicious 'Big Breakfast' at a Cairns cafe!

I am not a coffee snob but I do enjoy a nice cappuccino every now and then!

Fish sculptures in the Cairns Esplanade Lagoon

We noted that the surrounding area really was quite mountainous and very very green compared to the drought stricken outback we had been in for the past few weeks.  It made for a pleasant change of scenery.

The next episode of WTF? - Where are The Farrows?, will see us hit the backroads once again to get amongst the dirt, dust, cattle and crocs as we commence our east to west crossing of the country via the Savannah Way.

Along the way to the 2018 Mt. Hogan Treasure Chase

Dear Reader,

I have been a little lax, so far as blogging has been concerned, since my last posting detailing our Carnarvon Gorge adventures.  Considerable time has elapsed and many kilometres have been travelled since then so an update is well and truly overdue.  Some of you may well have asked yourselves ‘WTF? - Where ARE The Farrows?’, while for most of you it probably hasn’t even crossed you mind.  Either way, the answer to that question is at hand.  Please read on…

Upon leaving Carnarvon Gorge we resumed our journey in a generally northerly direction through Queensland towards Mt. Hogan Station in Etheridge Shire (inland approx 400km NW of Townsville & 400km SW of Cairns) where Heather was to participate in the 2018 Mt. Hogan Treasure Chase (a metal detecting competition that we have wanted to check-out for a while).

Our route from Carnarvon Gorge to Etheridge Shire in North Queensland

We did as much free and low cost camping as possible along the way with simple overnight stops  (some good, some not so bad and, one ugly) and a few multiple night stops whenever we found ourselves at a particularly nice location.  One nighters included:

• Emerald Free Camp (FC) in the town of Emerald;
• Bundoora Dam FC near German Creek Coal Mine;
• Cape River Bridge Rest Area FC (roadside rest area ~110km south of Charters Towers);
• Prairie Hotel FC
• Mt. Surprise Caravan Park
• Cumberland Chimney FC (~20km west of Georgetown)
• Flat Creek Station (~45km south of Georgetown off of the Forsayth Road)
• Bush camp on the side of the Einasleigh-Gilberton Road

While staying behind the Prairie Hotel we met their resident pet water buffalo 'Buffy'.  The pub has plenty of Bush Pub character and is one of the 51 hotels featured in a book titled 'Australian Bush Pubs'.  We decided to buy a copy and have the publican sign their page and date it with the day we called in.  Right there and then we resolved to visit all of the bush pubs in the book and get each publican to sign and date their respective pages so you can expect to read about our progress so far as knocking each one off of the list during our travels!

'Buffy' the pet Water Buffalo at the Prairie Hotel

'Challenge Accepted'!
We intend to visit ALL 51 pubs featured in the book.

The longer stops included:

• Lake Elphinstone (~90km north of Moranbah);
• Fletchers Creek (~40km north of Charters Towers);
• Porcupine Gorge National Park (~70km north of Hughenden);
• Bush camp on the bank of the Einasleigh River (~30km SE of Einasleigh);
• O’Briens Campground (in the gem fossicking fields ~35km NW of Mt. Surprise);
• Forsayth Caravan Park
• Mt. Hogan Station and the 2018 Mt. Hogan Treasure Chase

At Lake Elphinstone we set up at a lakeshore campsite but relocated after some advice from a couple of different folks that the sandflies and ‘midgies’ were unbearable at sunrise and sunset.  Rather than risk be eaten alive we moved to a site about 50m away from the shoreline and proceeded to enjoy our stay ‘un-molested’.

There is a reason the lakefront campsites are 'available'.
The sandflies and midges will feast on you if you stay too close to the water.

We stayed for 2 nights at Porcupine Gorge National Park.  We did a ‘self-drive’ tour by stopping at ‘Points of Interest’ signposted along the 70km drive to the park from Hughenden.  In the park itself we did a couple of short hikes.  One along the rim of the gorge and another into the bottom of the gorge and back.

The aptly named Pyramid Rock from the bottom of Porcupine Gorge

The Forsayth Caravan Park made for a good base to explore the area.  There are plenty of properties in the area that permit you to go metal detecting for gold (and relics or whatever else you may be targeting).  For $10/day you can detect for gold and keep whatever you find and several people staying in the caravan park when we were there had done quite well for themselves!  One bloke in particular, John ‘The Legend’ Flynn, had found about 90 grams of gold (~ 3 ounces @ US$1,250/oz of gold = US$3,750) worth about A$5,000 across the duration of his stay up this way.

Not a bad haul while detecting near Forsayth!  Nice bloke too!

We met ‘The Legend’ once again at Mt. Hogan Station as he too was to take part in the 2018 Mt. Hogan Treasure Chase!

At the 2018 Mt. Hogan Treasure Chase there were 51 entrants all detecting the hard ground beneath long prickly grasses and the sandy creek beds for gold and/or 17 ‘planted’ tokens.  This was a tough competition as the tokens (these were new horseshoe nails tied to a small square of leather), had been dispersed across the more than 200ha (~500 acres) of one of the paddocks of the cattle station.

Prizes were awarded for the most gold found by an individual, the most weight of ‘garbage’ detected and collected (wire, horseshoes, iron, etc), and the most tokens found.  The 2 days of competition yielded a total of 60 grams of gold (winning competitor found 9 grams), 20 kg of garbage (winner turned in 7kg) and just 7 tokens (winner found 2 tokens).

Heather working hard digging in a dry creek bed at the 2018 Mt. Hogan Treasure Chase

The Treasure Chase wrapped up with an awards ceremony then all entrants and guests shared a camp oven dinner around a fire while some live music played in the background.  A good time was had by all.

After a couple of weeks ‘out-bush’ in the dust and brown grass laden with seed prickles (which we were constantly picking out of our socks), we were looking forward to seeing some green on the ground once again.  First thing next morning we broke camp and hit the road again.  The coast sounds nice.  Perhaps WTF? - Where are The Farrows? will go there for a while…