The Red Centre and up the Peninsula- 27th June

Back in the van and on the road (small difference from a 2 room suite in Bali ! ) and were off across the red centre then up to the 'Top End' and Cairns. Bell started off this trip at the helm (as Chris was having to make full use of the caravan bathroom facilities from time to time to time to time..... you get the picture!!! ) and enjoying the 400km straight run leaving Darwin, thru Katherine for some fresh rolls and some grease (for the Towball ! ) arriving in Mataranka Springs around 3pm. Chris still was not feeling 100% after Bali, so he enjoyed the sights and tried to relax in the passengers seat for this part of the trip.

 

See photo - Bitter Springs .. but fun & warm.

Monday: Darwin to Mataranka - 423 km We set up (all of 10min - with the car still hooked up ) and walked the 500m to the Bitter Springs, beautiful warm water with a nice steady current. The boys were like fish as usual and we joined the many other visitors to soak away for a good 1/2 hr!  We learnt that Mataranka is famous for the movie 'We of the Never Never', which I feel we will now need to watch.


 

See photo - Riley, Aiden & Alexanda.

Tuesday: Mataranka to Three Ways - 542 km and stayed in the Caravan Park out the back of the roadhouse where met a lovely family from South Africa, enjoyed a family game of soccer with the kids, in the morning the guy next door managed to rip half the caravan park apart with a jack leg he left down.....so much for a stealth exit at 5am hahahah !!!!

 Wednesday: Three Ways to Mt Isa - 646 km our longest run yet, we crossed the border (total 3970 kms travelled in the NT) Unfortunately the underground mine tour was for 12 years and up but again the boys met a new friend and had a blast on their bikes ( Riley didn't stack it today YAY! )



See photo - Krys eating Riley & Aiden.

Thursday: Mt Isa to Normanton - 495 km as luck would have it we met another great family on holidays from Queensland with all their oldies from a bike club, we took photos by the Barramundie fish and a replica of the largest croc 'Krys' ever caught in the world 28ft YIKES! , check this video out. We got some tips from the locals and Riley had another crash on his bike..........!

Friday: Normanton to Mt Surprise - 395 km. We awoke in the morning to find a 5 inch crack in our windscreen, however that was not the last of it, with many single lane sections and hopping off and back on road one caravan didn't slow down and added another star to the windscreen, it was a challenging run which we both shared the driving, Chris doing much better than Bell! That aside the boys have just been brilliant this week with no TV and lots of chatting, some fun worksheets..... and of course FOOD!........we could not be more proud of the boys. It is true what they say about the simple life..... especially with Bell!  

See photo - Undara - Lava Tube.

5 days.... 2501 km......32 toilet stops! certainly not as hard as we thought it would be.

The boys were keen to see a volcano in Bali but we just felt the trip was too far, so better still we headed out on the Undara Lava Tube Tour just outside of Mt Surprise formed by some of the 100 + volcano's in the region. The Kalkani Crater which is 900 meters above sea level had one of the world's largest lava flows from a single vented volcano (190 000 years ago), in modern geological times. We climbed around the rim then headed back to the bus for morning tea and a short drive to the 'Wind Tunnel' Complex, where sections of the tunnels or volcano tubes have collapsed, entry could be gained to the 'Arch Complex' and 'Barkers tube'. Here we were totally reliant on torches for 400 metres, the boys loved having their own torch and wanted to go back exploring. They also wanted to take a rock home, but as it was a National Park we took a photo instead! The boys just loved Rob our tour guide and became his best friend, they even helped him set up for morning tea (carrying the biscuits!). It truly was amazing to experience what the force of nature can sometimes leave in its wake.

See photo - Windy Hill - appropriate location
for these flatulent boys!

From here our drive has changed to a more lush green jungle that we knew QLD was renowned for. It started with rain for one day and a cool 14 degrees where we stopped at Windy Hill Wind Farm a wind power station near Ravenshoe on the Atherton Tablelands.  Windy Hill has 20 wind turbines with a generating capacity of 12MW. The wind was almost as cold as being on a ski field ... thankfully this weather was not a sign of things to come, and we continued on stopping at Herbeton to visit the old tin mine and enjoyed our best fish and chips to date at the Jacaranda Coffee Lounge........ we then set off for Mareeba and a free overnight camp.  We met a great couple that have 5 children (all grown up now), who were also taking 6 months to travel around Australia, they live in Innaloo (5 min from us) and left just 1 week after us..... and we hope to catch them again. However our biggest milestone for the boys here was Aiden deciding he wanted to trade in the trainer wheels (one blew out), so what better time to give it a go on a large grass paddock, once he started there was no stopping him.

See photo - The girls with the boys!!

On the way to Palm Cove we stopped in Mareeba and enjoyed the history  in the museum and the boys were fascinated by the gramophone and old equipment (and the giant Brahman bull then taking a stop at Kuranda for lunch and a 1 hour forest walk (look forward to our visit again when we take the train from Cairns) the view was just magic. Once again great neighbours at Palm Cove (we have been so lucky as we have heard some horror stories), boys enjoyed a swim, went for lots of walks and soaked up the magical view with the locals on the jetty. While we were on the jetty one walk, a group of young Japanese girls wanted to have a photo with us, they were so excited, they were just like little school girls.

Just thought we would wrap up with some statistics to date:

Total Accommodation Cost: $1,645
Total Fuel Cost: $3,174
Total Fuel Consumed: 1,971 L of diesel
Total Distance Travelled: 11,194 km
Sicknesses: 1 cold for Aiden and Bali belly for Chris
Fish: 0
Injuries: to many to count!

Our next adventure takes us into the heart of the Daintree area, on that note here is our next clip.