Sep 2008

Arrived at Mount Surprise just in time for morning tea. What a gorgeous little town it is. If you were ever looking for a picturesque little town to get away from it all in, with a fabulous community spirit, and so beautifully organised and run, then this is it! Its certainly a lot cooler than the Gulf Savannah Land that we’d just left. Its still full of the stunning woodland savannah grasslands, but its just better. Its also on the edge of the gold and mineral fossicking area, so lots of fun to have after the wet season, fossicking around in the creeks around town.

The Savannahlander Train has a stop in Mount Surprise. It runs from Forsayth to Chillagoe in the North approximately 200kms in total. Their train station is just gorgeous. I’ve never seen a train station that provides a lovely green grassed area around the platforms and tracks. Very cute! They also had an interesting little museum on the history of the construction of the line. Lots of stunning old pics of the poor old buggers who built the line.

We then arrived at Undara – the longest and oldest lava tubes in the world. Quite interesting trip. We did the 2 hour three tube trip. You can spend 3 days on the entire experience. There is accommodation, a restaurant, bar and lots of walk trails you can do as well. There is also wildlife spotting and other trips to do in the evening.

Happy Birthday to Steve, Happy Birthday to Steve, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday to Steve! 47 Today! Hip Hip Horay!

Got a late start after a late night of trying to sleep in a 35o day that was refusing to drop a degree at all into the night. Its been incredibly hot. I don’t know how we’re going to go going further north! Eeek!

Had another drive around town to check out all the nooks and crannies. Its an interesting town. Population was 322, and at its peak in the 1880’s it was 30,000. You can see around the lovely perfectly laid out town with the usual wide streets and manicured verges and roads in a grid pattern, that the town was quite large, but a large proportion of the buildings are missing with large blocks of vacant land. It almost looks like the houses around town are dotted in parks. The local junk collector had the most incredible collection of old utes from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. The are rusting away in huge big piles to one end of town. There was also a huge old steam engine for sale. Will send to Patrick to pass on to Philippa. It still had all its pistons – Steve was impressed to see one so old and still intact.

Anyway one of the large vacant blocks in town has been converted to a caravan park by the local shire. It was really lovely and nice facilities and for $15.50PN it was great value – it even had a pool!

Moved on from Croydon to Georgetown. The population is 300 but it’s a really cute spot. We’ve seen the biggest mango tree we’ve ever seen! They apparently have one of their own in Australian Idol as they had signs up everywhere to vote for them. Unfortunately, just for something different, we didn’t have mobile service so we couldn’t vote. The town was really happy for him. Anyway go Mitchell! Whoever you are!

Decided to head towards Mount Surprise and stopped half way there on a creek bed so Steve could go do a bit of fossicking as the area around Croydon and Georgetown has gold sitting on the surface that washes down to streams in the wet. It gets caught up in river beds at the base of trees etc. So Steve the expert miner said. He has is Miners Licence at home.

Had the most amazing night under the stars in the middle of nowhere. I’ve never seen the Milky Way as brilliant as I’ve ever seen it. We spent an amazing few hours under the starts and retired to the finals in the 2nd Series of The Sopranos.

Took the Gulflander Train from Normanton to Critters Camp and return. A two hour trip on a heritage train line, opened in 1891 it was still 97% original with its patented steel sleepers that were white ant resistant, and also required less padding and ground work beneath it, so was incredibly cheaper to install.

(note the sign is written on the steel sleepers)

The train was rickety and we were sure glad we didn’t take the entire trip to Croydon. It was an hour there and an hour back. It was a really cute little train built in 1950. The train station was spectacular due to its originality.

Then Steve wanted to have one last go at fishing. I got him to drop me off at the Pub. Met Leanne the young Irish backpacker who’s mum sent her to Australia to sort herself out. It was her 25th birthday today and she was quite pissed. I had trouble enough with her northern Ireland accent enough, but the alcohol was making it really difficult. She was quite sad as she was missing her parents. It was an interesting couple of hours.

Steve enjoyed his fishing. We really liked Normanton. It seemed to have all it needed and 3 pubs to choose from. Not bad for a population of 1500. I guess the heat would knock you for 6 during summer though!