Oz wanderings continued...
6/26/2026
The road up from the Coral Coast weaves steeply through the rainforest. Weirdly, though we expected the rainforest to be filled with birdsong and tropical flowers it’s almost silent. The flowers may be seasonal of course , but when we walked in the bush, well away from the crowds , we heard and saw virtually no birds . Where are they all??
Over the top of the range and we entered the Atherton tablelands , a vast area of rich volcanic soils. This stretch of extinct volcanos forms part of the Great Dividing Range, which begins way down by the Snowy Mountains.
The area is agricultural and grows coffee, tea, avocados and bananas. But they still make terrible coffee! (Maybe we’ve become coffee snobs in NZ? But I don’t think that kiwi would be happy with what’s usually served up here). But it’s a beautiful district and cooler than the rainforest which clings to it’s western edge.
We drove around Lake Tinaroo- a vast manmade storage lake with an impressive spillway. We kept an eye out for northern Bettongs ( look a bit like a large guinea pig) but didn’t see any.We stopped for lunch at Herbiton , a quaint wee village with a pub which is also the hardware store, and makes very good bacon and egg rolls. And the town also has a spy camera museum! What more could you ask for?
Then we decided to detour down a 40km dirt track shortcut. Which it would have been except that we got almost to the end to find that they’d closed the road and we had to drive all the way back. Words were said. Quite loudly.
We’d decided to aim that night for some hot springs (there are quite a few in Outback QL) but when we got there the camp was pretty full, very expensive and no toilets at the springs. Drive on.
We found a peaceful camp at Mt Garnet.Sadly, the man who mines the garnets is currently sick, so none on offer. Sidetrack here - I woke up one morning a couple of weeks back to find my ring was minus a sapphire, so am looking for another gem to fill the gap- it might be nice to have a carne in the gap?
Anyway, we cooled our frazzled tempers by going for a walk past the old dam, then spent a relaxing night at the local camp. Off next morning to the Undara National Park - a vast area of extinct volcanoes . We climbed to the top of 900mm tall Mt Kalari , but I have to be honest and say we didn’t start at sea level. Walking around the bush clad rim of a large volcano is interesting - looking out across the plains below where lava flows left huge hollow tubes beneath the ground. A bit like geological cannelloni.
Robbie studied geology so I was determined to get him up here to have a close look at these huge and rare beauties. We booked into the campground and went to book the tour - they then informed us that the caves were closed and the only tour on offer meant walking through waist deep water! Yet another instance of not being able to get near something on conservation land without joining a pricey tour. But I guess they have their reasons. It wasn’t a very good tourist day for us!
Anyway , next morning up we got and headed off instead on a bush track to an old homestead - they’ve built a replica of the one which was there in 1876 ( I imagine the first one burned down , as this part of Oz is famous for very big bushfires). A peaceful spot and a nice walk for a couple of hours.
The rest of the day we spend reading and catching up camping chores . Robbie is currently reading Dick Smith’s autobiography and I’ve moved onto Peter Carey . He’s managing a book every few days, really is on holiday.
Leaving Undara next morning we began the longish drive south to Chartres Towers. While I was driving I spotted a camel facing off a group of cattle! And drove past Upsan Downs road…
Reaching Chartres Towers we soon realised that the school holidays have begun and everything is booked out. But the nice lady at one campground called a friend with a motel who luckily had a room for us. And she turned out to be from Lower Hutt :)
Chartres Towers is an old gold mining town, with lots of ornate buildings, but we just braved the supermarket for the first time in a while and retreated.
Tomorrow we’ll head west and hopefully lose the crowds a bit. That makes me sound a bit of a grinch but we do enjoy the open spaces the outback ( as you’ve probably realised by now).
Jan
Jan Thomson
New Zealand Artist & Tutor
© All Images Copyright © Jan Thomson, All Rights Reserved.
