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Daley Waters, Beckley Homestead and Undara
We left Darwin sadly as it was an awesome place but at the same time we were getting quite excited as Queensland and the East coast are looming ever nearer. We saw on some jewellery in Darwin engraved with a sentiment that goes (something like) "travel is not about your destination but the journey itself". This holds true to our next unexpected stop. After many hours driving and then on just a little further we stopped at a small town called Daly Waters, quite a famous remote little town apparently. We stopped the night at the campsite next to the pub. It was amazing, the tavern itself had over the years collected all sorts of memorabilia from travelers that had passed through the place. The pub displays with some pride everything from flags to badges to bras and everything else. Most with messages on. The place had character and i wanted to be a part of it and remembered i had a set of old Qantas overalls in my box of spares. I unstitched the large Qantas badge and wrote Rich and Gems Long way around 2008 and it now we'll be part of that pub forever.
Curiously we met a couple called Glen and Ginny that we have bumped in to (not in a literal sense) on several occasions since Broome at various locations. It was good to have a drinking buddy for the in such a location and the evening passed in a bit of a blur.
Morning came and i felt good, considering, ready to hit the road again (I'm detecting a theme). We stopped just outside the township, by the WWII airfield to look at Stuarts tree. McDowell Stuart, the intrepid explorer famed for finding a passable route from Adelaide to Darwin, which is now the Stuart highway, had apparently carved a big S in this tree at the time of his original passing. It was a little dubious but maybe with a little imagination it was there.
It really is a vast land filled with not very much and very unpopulated. We would pass sometimes maybe 5-10 cars in a days driving. The endless monotony of driving in such a region made easier by the termite mounds along the roadside which now appear to have taken the form of the standard Phallus, offering amusement to the bored and somewhat immature, notably myself.
We stopped a second night at Beckley Homestead (nothing more that an overpriced rather pompous roadhouse!) which was approximately 250km from the Qld Border. We've enjoyed crossing borders on this trip and the sense of achievement it brings. Although this is the penultimate crossing for this trip, a sign that the end of the trip is looming. A depressing and sobering thought. First stop in Qld is Cloncurry which boasts the highest recorded temperature of anywhere in Australia a staggering 52 deg C. We passed through the rather intimidating industrial giant that is the town of MT Isa.
There's not much to say about the next few nights and the random towns we stopped at. Just a mass off driving and sleeping. We did however break the journey up a little bit by visiting the lava tunnels at Undara. The tunnels were formed by volcanoes some 190,000 years ago and stretched some 100 miles. Some have now collapsed or filled in but they were still very impressive. We had another treat as the water table had flooded and the caves themselves were waist deep in water, an event that apparently happens only once every twenty years or so. We waded into capture some god photos but our batteries ran out and the spares in the case happened to be the old ones destined for the bin, Do'h. Our guide was funny, his jokes a little rehearsed but amusing, so a lot of polite laughing fed his ego for the trip.
That afternoon we decided to take a leap of faith and get to Cairns, about 300km away. The roads slowed us up as we had to drive through the mountain ranges and rain forest that surrounded our destination. We quickly acknowledges why they were called the misty mountains. The glimpses of scenery we caught as we drove were spectacular.
We got to Cairns town about 7ish, drove around trying to find things open which proved difficult. We found a place and got a motel room for the night (second time of the whole trip) as we didn't fancy erecting the van in the tropical monsoon in the dark.
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