Julia Creek, Emerald to Carnavon Gorge

Typically a 12 hour drive we spread this over 10 days. We stopped in Julia Creek at two separate locations, then onto Winton we stopped at "Long Waterhole", moving on to Redbank Park in Jerico.

From there we passed through Alpha (BTW : Best pies in Australia at Snows Bakery, Alpha - as voted by both Daz and Allie). We stopped at the Dam outside Emerald, and drove onto Carnarvon Gorge.

See below for more.

Julia Creek

We stayed our first night at the Free Camp just out of Julia Creek. Its by the river and the was a little rain expected, so we were extra careful at not unpacking too much or unhitching the car - just in case.

The next morning at 7am we woke to this...the storm was coming ... you will recall this pic from our last blog...

(we have now uploaded thid storm video) ... by 7am - a massive storm had hit, it was incredible. 

See this video

We left chairs and just got out, I went back into get the chairs a little later. The only damage was to the car door which blew open and pulled the hinges. Will need to get that fixed when back. Lucky we have been thinking safety all the way through this trip - its paid off a couple of times now.

We decided to stay at the Caravan Park that night. We opted out of the famous bath and sunset thing as the weather was crap. I have promised Allie we'll do it next time through as she had really looked forward to that. Pretty uneventful at the camp other than the owner being an real arrogant dickhead.

We took the the back road to to McKinlay where the original Croc Dundee pub is.

We also stopped at the Blue Heeler pub also, just because it looked interesting ... and it was...

Our next stop  was to stay at the Long Waterhole free camp near Winton. Winton itself did not interest us much (even after popping into the info centre) or grab our attention. It was warm and we found a pool in Barcaldine, so in we went.

Actually its a trick we have learned travelling in the hot season - if its a decent size town and you need to cool off and hit your reset button - a pool is the best way. Cost $2 for the whole day !

... soon we needed to stay the night so we found this little free camp.

Somebody just has a little too much fun at these camps - i tell ya !

Although the ground was dusty and would really mud-up if it rained - they evening sky was awesome.

Age of Dinosaurs - (Just as you leave Winton)

We thought a bit expensive, but were pleasantly surprised, it was well worth a look. We enjoyed the Lab  tour the most, and got to see the foot prints also.

Just before Longreach we stayed out in the bush at "Macsland Rest Area" - a top spot located about 20 mins before Longreach from Winton. 

You can see below, just a short drive into the bush from the road.

Longreach

Much like Winton, Longreach did not push our buttons. Most of the "things to see" were cut back as it was out of tourist season, so we skipped on through.

The little town of IIfracombe had an interesting historical stop. It once was Australias largest sheep station, and was run by a guy who learnt his farming trade in NZ of all places.

We stopped for a small snack along the way

Jerico, Redbank Park

Now this was a nice little camp. Nothing in town to really see. But the camp was awesome. Thats us right in the middle

Emerald, Lake Maraboon Dam. Again not much to see in Emerald, but along the way came across a little town called Alpha. Stopped in to yak to some of the locals and met "Snow". who owns the little bakery.

He tells us he got the shop from his dad who long since passed away (a memorial chair is outside the shop). His dad passed down his pie recipes. 

We bought what we think is the best pie to date we have had in Australia - good work Snow !

Carnarvon Gorge

We decided after a bit of a long drive we would sleep the night, rest the first full day, then do our planned huge hike on the second day, then rest the following (third) day. 

Which means about 4 nights at Carnarvon Gorge. Some pics below

**still writing this blog check back later today and I'll link the "bat clip"  to the blog **

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Episode 21 is due out now .

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Mount Isa, Clem Walton to Cloncurry and Julia Creek

This blog entry sees us spend a week or so to travel from Mt Isa to Julia Creek.

Not a big drive to do in a day if you wanted to, but we stopped along the way. See details below

In Mt Isa we stocked up on Groceries, water etc 

Before heading to Clem Walton (Corella Dam) to camp for  2-3 days, we stopped at Mary Kathleen ghost town and 4WD up to the mine - we made it up towing the caravan behind us.

Staying just 10  minutes from Mary Kathleen we camped at Clem Walton. What a fantastic spot.

We stayed here 3 nights. Saw many crocs. This guy (below) we named Albert, but we saw 4-5 of them. Darren managed a quick swim with no damage. It was super hot here.

Below are a few photos.

A camp fire cooked roast lamb went down a treat - it came out perfect.

Leaving Clem Walton we headed to Cloncurry to check it out. We could not see the Lookout as it was closed. However we found an amazing swim pool complex. 

For only $3 we spent most of a very hot day there, before that evening heading for Julia Creek.

We initially planned to stop at the Oorinda free camp - but due to roadworks it was closed, and we pushed on toward Julia Creek.

Julia Creek has a nice stop just on its west side which is set up for RV's to pull in so we stayed there.

It was a whopping 40 deg when we arrived - and it remained the  same to well after 7pm when we were there. Its hard to measure Sunsets, but we have to say this nights one was amazing. They just seem to get better.  Captured this as a huge storm rolled in.

In the morning a huge storm hit us, it gave us about 5 mins to packup before it hit.

The front door of the Prado nearly got ripped clean off the hinges - it was unbelievable and the water came up really quickly, so we dragged the camper off the dirt and onto a tar road for safety.

We limped into the Julia park Caravan Park - where initially the owner was very hostile. However he eventually apologised and found us a camp (the camp was basically empty).

We were to do a romantic evening in the Julia Creek spa, but the weather at this stage was not playing ball. Sad - but then we have so many great times thus far its ok to miss out on one or two. 

Gregory, Lawn Hill, Riversleigh Lawn Hill, Matts Rest to Mt Isa

A very awesome part of the overall trip. We did this with Mark and Rob whom we met at Atherton. Lots of camps, sunsets, campfires, booze and giggles. We really enjoyed their company.

The below journey was done over several days. And due to flooding involved a little backtracking.

We started at Gregory and headed to Adeles Grove camping - we were not terrible impressed with the Camp so we pushed on to the National Park about 15 mins further into the Lawn Hill park.

We spent a few days here. Swimming, Hiking and we did the Canoe trip (paddles are hired by Adeles Grove at $30 pp). 

The photos of the gorge really don't do it justice - see below

After the hike it was to the falls by canoe.

The next day we headed toward Riversleigh - we did get to the World Heritage site through ... but could not get through a swollen river soon after and decided safety first and turned back to Gregory, and we headed toward Mt Isa. 

The first bit of the river was ok, but around the corner was a deep torrent with a big hole on the nasty side.

On the way we had to cross a few muddy puddles with the van. These had to be walked first.

later on we found a great camp at Matts Rest (see Wikicamps), and settled in for an overnight in the outback.

A huge storm was doing its thing in the distance - in the direction we had come from ... so we are thinking we escaped "the wet" by about 3 minutes lol

The next day we arrived in Mt Isa on Sunday.

Two massive storms hit on arrival. The van and truck got a long awaited rest.

We spent the Monday looking around Mt Isa and did a trip out to Lake Moondarra (only 13 kms out of Mt Isa). Its well worth the short trip.