Georgetown

On leaving Cairns we had a big drive ahead of us. We are heading towards Karumba, which is over 800km's away, and had decided that if we put in two big days of driving, we could make it in two days instead of three. So much to the kids despair -we were in for lots of driving.


There were a couple of options for how to get there - we could drive back up through Kuranda and Mareeba (very tight windy rainforest road), we could head up through Gordonvale and Atherton (only 160 corners!) or head down to Innisfail and follow the Palmerston Highway (which was the longer way - but not as windy). We ended up heading to Innisfail and going the way we know - we took this path to go to Mareeba a few weeks ago.

It was a slow journey in the beginning because, although it wasn't windy, it was still hilly and the truck is fairly slow up all the hills - at least we get a good view at the scenery. As it got closer to lunch time we started looking for somewhere to pull the van over to have luck. It was not long after this that we came across Windy Hill - a wind farm that as amazing to see. There were 20 wind turbines spread out across the countryside - and they were huge! The kids were fascinated, so we read the info and learnt all about the large wind turbines that ran electricity to most of the area.


After the quick stop for lunch, we were back in the truck for the afternoon drive. We had planned to stay at a free camp spot along the way, but when we got there we found it was right beside the highway and there were no other caravaners there - so we made the decision to play it safe - and keep going until we got to Georgetown, another hour and a half.

Georgetown is know as "halfway to Karumba" so we had made great progress for the day. Not alot in Georgetown to do or see, but we did meet two guys who were doing the unbelievable. As usual, old "Mr Hav'achat" - Chris - got talking to two guys staying in the caravan park. They were riding around Australia on their push bikes - yes, you read right - Australia - on their bikes - are they mad? Matt and Nick were taking 6 months to ride around Australia and raise awareness for Youth Suicide.

Chris got talking to them and invited them over to charge some of their gear on our power and once we got chatting we invited them to stay for a barbeque dinner. The poor guys had left the Gold Coast 4 weeks ago and had hardly had a decent meal since. So we cooked up a big meal of pasta, vegies and meat for them - while we chatted about their adventure.


They had planned to be on the road about 5am - to beat the heat of the midday sun. So when we headed off at 7:30am - we kept our eye out for them - so we could give them some cold water and fruit. After about an hour and a half we came across the boys having a break on the side of the road - we stopped and chatted with them for a bit and then hit the road again for Karumba.



Finally after two long, long days of driving we were just about there - we had arrived in Normanton. Although we weren't stopping here - we did stop for some quick pics at the big Barra, and the giant croc - Krys - The Savannah King. The kids were amazed at the size of the croc - it was the largest saltwater croc at 8.63m ever captured in the world.



We were back in the truck then for the quick trip, only 1 1/2 hours, through to Karumba!!