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Queensland The Ungovernables Winging It...
Mossaman
August 9, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Small but had mostly everything you needed , unfortunately the fresh fungus people had managed to set up shop , great bakery, butcher to stock up on 2 weeks of Billy’s food, hardware that had everything! Great to see Bunnings hadn’t got their foot in the door! stayed one night before pushing to Cape Trib.
We found an amazing fruit and veg farm on the way to Wonga beach and on our return journey stocked up on the basics including a trip to the bakery.Read more
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Queensland The Ungovernables Winging It...
Wonga Beach
Aug 9–19, 2024 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 23 °C
The Great Barrier Reef tourist road loops round the coastline from canoes leading us to our destination Wonga Beach , you could smell the bite of sea air as soon as you arrived, the first few days it rained , a natural untouched golden beach, swimming was a no go , the local wildlife with sharp teeth tended to put people off being dragged into the blue yonder.
Funny thing was at the entrance to the beach there’s signs warning you of crocs and stingers and a Australian flag, I can see it now , you could be getting either eaten by a croc , stung by stingers as your countries flag flys in the wind, proud to be Ozzie!?

Each morning we’d take Billy for a walk on beach and every morning the tide would of changed, some mornings the water would be like glass ,so inviting but you got a sense of something lurking , waiting!? We found out around a month ago, a chap was sleeping on the beach in his sleeping bag and during the night a croc decided to come up and drag him out , it was the bag that saved him as it enabled him to wriggle free! Only in Australia!. I have to say we didn’t see a peak from a croc and the shark seen off the beach the other day , we didn’t see either ,whether that’s a good thing?
10 whole nights went so quick ,Days slowed down but time seemed to disappear and before you know it dusk would be creeping in! Paul brought a fishing Rod , no idea , casting at the start would be a flop, meeting fellow travelers happy to lead a helping hand gave the beginner tips!

We meet some interesting characters from the management of the site to the caravan goers, happy to big up that ego by how alright they are because they are a white Australian male? , how they have a big house with 5 or 6 bedrooms (which we never worked out why he didn’t know how many he actually had!) all paid off and will keep travelling until they feel like going home!? Big custom build Ram cars , pulling big brand new caravans for big fat Ozzies that didn’t move all day unless it was for breakfast , cake or beer! No wonder we are the fatest nation.

Trying to stay humble and being thankful and blessed to have a mobile home after 10days rest ,the mystery bus was cleaned from top to toe, from all the red dust took on from Chilllaoe, CB radio purchased coming though Carines and installed by a local called John, which we released very quickly we need from our short trip out West , repairs completed , for some reason things break , drop off or get lost, also you learn what works and dose’nt with regards to space and “things” - time to enter the Daintree.Read more
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Queensland The Ungovernables Winging It...
Dan’s place - Cow Bay - Daintree
Aug 19–22, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
Stocking up on some supply’s in Mossman before we headed back on ourselves to the Daintree ferry, 17 years we’d took this ferry during the hottest & humid month of Jan 2008. , two Brits ,one camper van touring the East coast during the hottest time, well it felt like it!
Dan’s place ,solely picked because of the reviews, he owns 3 acres and has turned the back part into a place for eco travellers, hot shower , flushing dunnie , no power , there is drinking water and a 1km jungle path that leads down to Cow Beach. Paul decided to go off and have a look! Openly you need boots and Billy won’t be able to o as there’s a log over a creek , Paul managed to go the wrong way as expected but found his way back!Read more
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Queensland The Ungovernables Winging It...
Cape Tribulation
August 20, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
Tracing back out steps, Cape Tribulation had changed so much , the cyclone in Dec 2023 has took a toll on the area and economically you could see a lot of closed businesses.
We found Dragonfly which sadly was closed , we had fond memories of the wooden restaurant with the turtle pond out front , later we were to discover that the turtle pond had been the scene of an awful accident which involved one of the local kids drowning in the pond that ripped apart a small community!

I booked the famous Daintree croc spotting boat trip down the Daintree river and it so happened that the same chap and same boat took us 17 years ago down the same river. Chatting to him I discovered a lot of backpackers return years later with their own family , 35 years he’d been taking tourists down the Daintree.
The Daintree water rises up to 2metres , the tide line can be seen within the mango groves growing on the river banks , you could see odd yellow leaves scattered amongst the lush greenery, the mango groves had adapted to the salt water and the yellowing of odd leaves was the tree extracting the salt through dead leaves.
We saw 4 crocs, 2 female , 1 baby which I couldn’t see!? And a rouge male sitting on the sandy banks near the river entrance from the sea.
Each part of the Daintree is inhabited with one female, sadly croc man told us one day he witnessed one of the females having a really bad day and attacked and ate a five year old right in front of the boat, if you think about it Croc man has been watching these predators grow up have kids for 35 years to see such a viscous attack on another animal of the same species must of been quite disturbing!?

We left cape trib behind thanking Dan for sharing his land in the rain forest, glad to leave the intense heat and humidity , I have no idea how we ever survived this place back in Jan 2007, remembering back the air conditioning in the camper van was the trick to survive the rainforest during that time of year. We drove onto the ferry and crossed the Daintree for the last time, heading South we began our Monmouth trip to the tablelands and across the outback, destination walkabout creek hotel!Read more
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Queensland The Ungovernables Winging It...
Innot Hot Springs & Pinnarendi Station
Aug 22–23, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
Leaving Cape Trib ,we headed over the tablelands , passing huge wind farms we stopped at the town of Innot Hot Springs , home to a lovely natural hot spring,
Conveniently located on the famous Kennedy Highway, it’s a perfect midpoint between the towns of Ravenshoe and Mt Garnet

Pinnarendi Station Stay
Located in Forty Mile, Queensland, this family-run business offers a unique station stay experience. The property is a working cattle farm, with a mob of around 100 breeders, mostly Brahman and Brahman x Red Brangus.

Pinnarendi Station Stay & Cafe is a charming and rustic getaway, perfect for those seeking a peaceful retreat amidst nature. With its warm hospitality, homemade food, and picturesque surroundings.Read more
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Queensland The Ungovernables Winging It...
The Oasis Roadhouse
August 23, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C
The oasis roadhouse “ escape to the outback “ positioned on the longest highway we’ve yet to experience 320km straight on! The last fuel stop till Hughenden. Just taken over by a take no shit gal from Darwin , a very possible contender for the female ice hockey team from up North in the UK, you wouldn’t want to meet her in a dark ally but a beer after a game would be an awesome crack! Sent in to fix up the road house we appreciated an egg and bacon roll before we headed off into the outback!
Terrain was dry and mountainous, land full of grazing cattle.
We had an unexpected stop at the porcupine gorge national park and how glad we made that stop!Read more
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Queensland The Ungovernables Winging It...
Porcupine Gorge national park
August 23, 2024 in Australia ⋅ 🌬 30 °C
Towering sandstone cliffs and lush vine-forest fringing Porcupine Creek provide a striking contrast with surrounding flat plains. Porcupine Gorge is an impressive canyon that has been carved into the landscape by the eroding action of Porcupine Creek, revealing strata of sedimentary rocks spanning hundreds of millions of years. In the wider section of the gorge the creek has also created the Pyramid, an isolated monolith of multi-coloured sandstone rising from the floor of the gorge, shaped as its name suggests.

The sandstone gorge has incised up to 40 m below the adjacent plateau surface. In winter the base of the gorge is a series of waterholes while in the wet season it becomes a raging cascade which has excavated a deep chasmRead more
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Queensland The Ungovernables Winging It...
Hughenden
August 23, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
Couldn’t get into the quirky Peri so we stayed in Hughenden
We arrived to what can only be described as a covid quarantine camp , with 5G tower and 22 huts that resembled the movie set the great escape, you expected at any point for Steve McQueen to come riding though on his motorcycle and the perimeter fence was two fences one with barbed wire, reminding us of our travels across Africa all that was missing was smashed glass bits sunken into concrete on top of a wall! Oh and a water tank, painted which actually did liven up the camp view!
A Strange outback town , motor bikes could be heard in the middle of the night with locals arguing in their he distance, we discovered this was the place a family had been abducted in the middle of the night , outsiders stole their van with them in it , they were thrown out down the road and the guys took off! Another story was a caravan pulled in after the trip over the outback with no door , they had managed to lose their caravan door at some point on the way and a house over the road recently burnt down! My god it’s like being teleported back to the UK!
Just an overnighter needed to push on to our destination walkabout creek hotel .
There is something very special waking up early in the outback , the smell, stillness and colours of the sky, something everyone should experience once in their lifetime!Read more
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Queensland The Ungovernables Winging It...
Walkabout Creek Hotel , McKinlay
August 24, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C
The drive was a 305km straight road across the outback , terrain was dry and flat, the land was the colour of bales of hay with random green trees dotted along the train track that seemed to go on forever, fenced land holding cattle either side , kms of electric pylons, carcasses scattered along the side of the road , wild birds swooped down for their early morning feed, herons perched by the side of creeks looking for their next feed and occasionally the odd 4x4 , truck or road train would whiz passed heading East. Richmond was a quaint town , seemed well cared for , motels seemed half decent and the butchers didn’t resemble the movie set from saw! A beautifully painted water tank could be seen from the servo while filling up!

The place that put Australia on the map, Walkabout Creek hotel , home of crocodile Dundee , as kids we thought the whole of Australia was like the movie.
Even when Paul came over he thought he be landing in the middle whop whop!

Mr Paul James - Crocodile Dundee’s biggest fan…
The movies originally blue bar was out back for you to see.
What a night we had, pizza pool and beer! Paul took on the locals at pool beat the best and potted the black against the barmaid.
The owners, nice older couple had the place up for sale after ten years.
There was memorabilia from the movie from the original Holden never never safari Jeep, the car Walter picked Sue up in after arriving by helicopter, loads of photos mounted on the wall, the never never safari banner and the original Walkabout Creek Hotel sign, oh and they had moved the pub 300meters so it wasn’t in the original location!

We spent the night chatting to locals from Cloncurry who were working on the roads near by. Temps here get to late 40’s early 50’s in the summer, my comment was literally “get stuffed “!

We rocked Walkabout creek that night , the Dundee larger/ Carlton draft bitter flowed that night with white wine and pizzas, the locals soon found out we weren’t the typical tourist especially when you’ve traveled a long way to see a childhood dream in reality and we can safely say it didn’t disappoint and we didn’t disappoint Walkabout creek! “There’s a quicker way!”Read more
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Queensland The Ungovernables Winging It...
Mount Isa Mines
August 25, 2024 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C
Discovery Park Argylla
Planned to stay for one end up 2 nights due from the two long 7 hr drives getting to Walkabout Creek.
The first We had been warned of the late night Karaoke and partying by one of the caravan sites so decided to pick the first one we came to - Discovery Park Argylla , the green grass out front was a pleasant greeting after the stark mountains of the outback! Weather- Hot as hell!
Paul was greeted by a lovely young lady half aboriginal and was open for a good spiritual conservation.
We were informed by the lady to lock up our belongings due to young kids roaming around the campsite late at night, oh joy!
We had a Quick Look round grabbing some supplies and having a look at the biggest underground copper mine in the world!

Mount Isa Mines are over 100years old operates two separate mining and processing streams, copper and zinc-lead-silver.
Its copper operations include two underground copper mines, Enterprise and X41, with ore mining capacity of 6.2 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa), a concentrator with 7Mtpa capacity, a copper smelter, and support services.

The Enterprise mine is a major copper ore source at Mount Isa and is Australia’s deepest mine, with an internal shaft, which reaches a depth of 1,900m.

We survived our two nights in the outback town of Mount Isa onward we go to Post Office Hotel Motel on the Barkly Highway approximately 193km from Mount Isa.Read more
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Trip end
August 25, 2024