Innot Hot Springs, Moonstone Mountain and Townsville to Hydaway Bay

Quartz sphere that looked like the moon!

We left the comfort of Palm Cove behind and headed up the mountain towards Mareeba and Atherton. When we arrived at the Tablelands the temperature plummeted... having been used to 30 degree weather it was a bit of a shock and much complaining all around. We stopped in Atherton at the Crystal Caves which is a private museum with an amazing collection of stones. Housed here is the world’s largest amythest geode ‘The Empress of Uruaguay’ - 3.5m tall by 2m wide, 2.7 tonnes. The guy who owns the joint bought it in 1991 for $70,000 and last year was offered over a million for it - solid investment. There were other amazing stones, including an ancient Chinese lapis carving a few foot wide, a rose quartz bench and giant smoky quartz. It was really amazing to see so many large pieces in a private collection in Australia! 

Gav standing in front of The Empress of Uruguay

Gav sitting on the Rose Quartz Fountain

The Lapis Carving 

Nina sitting on the Rose Quartz Bench

After this we headed to Millstream Falls, which would have been nice for a swim if the weather was warmer. Instead we decided to head to Innot Hot Springs where there are 7 pools of varying temperatures from 22 - 45 degrees. We camped up here and had a relaxing time... even braving it to go in the 45 degree pool, which requires submersing yourself in cold water for 5 minutes, then jumping into the hot pool and trying not to move. 

Millstream Falls

In the middle of the night we awoke to a rainstorm of epic proportions, and we realised we had left the kitchen open and not undercover and the tool box open. We got our towels and ran out into the rain trying to salvage the very wet kitchen. The next morning we had to leave a little later as we needed to a second clean up, the day after we left our clean up in Cairns haha. We drove towards Undara National Park, where there are volcanic lava tubes. However upon finding out it cost $47 per person for a national park to enter, we decided to move on! We headed further south towards The Lynd on a mission to find Moonstone Mountain to try our luck fossicking for moonstone. Gav found out about this place via a website and had a poorly drawn mud map of how to get there. About 90km from the Lynd, down a dirt road, in the middle of nowhere we came across Moonstone Mountain. Upon stopping and having some lunch we discovered that the moonstone was everywhere. We spent the next 2 hours picking it up from the surface. We had arrived at the perfect time as all the grass had been burnt to the ground and there had just been rain to wash away the surface dust. It was easy to see the moonstone sparkling in the ground. Gav headed for a mission up the mountain and discovered that the best place to find large pieces of moonstone is in the dirt around the roots of a fallen tree. He came back with some huge pieces!

Gav picking a big piece of moonstone out of the tree trunk.

Nina specking for moonstone.

One of the large pieces of moonstone we found in the light.

Porcupine Gorge 

The next morning we spent more time fossicking around and all in all we had about 5kg of stone - was heaps of fun. Some pieces as big as your fist. Following this was a drive that we thought was going to be a 200km drive but in fact was over 600km... poor GPS calculating woops! Lucky we had spare fuel. We stopped off at Porcupine Gorge - an amazing sight and something which I don’t think many have seen. It should be one of the wonders of Australia. In the middle of nowhere a canyon, 130m deep and over 200m wide stretches for as far as you can see with a river running through it. It is said to be over 600million years old. Onwards we went towards Charters Towers and then to Townsville where we pulled up at the Rowes Bay Caravan Park - this time we locked our tent as we weren’t taking any chances with robberies that happened last time. Over the next few days we saw Jeremy, went swimming in his pool, went to the markets and hunted down our very own backgammon board (geeks!) 

Hope all is well in your world. 

N & G

Laura to Chillagoe Caves and back to Cairns

Aboriginal rock art at Split Rock, Laura

The road to Laura, Cape York was very corrugated and with a broken air con belt it was hot and dusty!! When we got to Laura we decided to camp up on the river with our German friends and then we headed to Split Rock to check out the Aboriginal Art. Laura has the largest Aboriginal art galleries in Australia with over 1200 sites. This was a very spiritual place and had some beautiful rock art, including some strange spirit alien type drawings. 

The baby calf we saw on the Palmerville track

A funny sign along the way! Poor car haha

The next day we headed off on the Palmerville track which is a 5 hour, very remote bush track. It was a fantastic drive and the best track we drove in Cape York - scenery was amazing and a lot more interesting than the main highways - having to get out and open and shut gates, up and down hills, through grass as high as the car and many water crossings. We saw a baby calf that had just been born that was so cute. He wanted to come on the trip with us as he ran after the car when we drove off. As we approached Chillagoe we drove through the Welcome Range which were magnificent volcanic rock formations - looked like it was from another planet. When we got to Chillagoe we stopped with the boys for some fish and chips at the local pub and a few beverages. That night we camped at the Walsh River and got eaten alive by some kind of midgies. Gav caught a cherubin (large freshwater prawn) with a spear that was 40cm, as well as a freshwater long tom that had a flounder in its mouth. The Germans were very impressed and excited to cook it up on the fire - it was delicious.

Me sitting at Chillagoe Caves

The long tom and cherubim that Gav caught - thong shows how big they were.

Gav walking into one of the caves.

Early the next day we packed up to a feast that Andre had cooked for breakfast. It was our last morning with the boys, as they were heading west towards Darwin. After breaky we went on some cave walks with the boys in Chillagoe. The most magnificent was The Pompeii Cave which you clambered into a tight tunnel, which opened into a 70m wide by 70m deep cavern open to the sky at the top. Massive boulders tumbled down through the landscape - it was an amazing sight. On we drove after Chillagoe leaving the boys behind, towards Mareeba and then on to Cairns. We decided to go back to Palm Cove in order to clean up after the dusty mission that was Cape York. Over the next few days we cleaned out the tent, the trailer and the car. Gav put out the crab pots again and managed to snag a few more mud crabs. 

N & G

Nina holding up Balancing Rock

Andre, Charley and Nina at Pompeii Cave entrance

Gav descending into Pompeii Cave

Looking up from the bottom of Pompeii Cave

The Gang at Pompeii Cave