Day 46 - Palmer River to Cairns

After the most picturesque evening by the Palmer river it was time we headed into he big smoke of Cairns.  As per normal our departure was around 9:30, well it would have been if it weren't for Giles.  Giles is the pop out toilet / shower tent.  It is called a pop out because it doesn't pop back!  This is something that we have so far been successful at beating, but not today.  After about 25 minutes of folding, bending, cursing, trying again, repeatedly we succumbed and simply placed him on top of the camper.  If it weren't for Giles we would have been on time, as it happened it meant a 10:20 departure.

Speaking to Gordon and Trish, the other campers at the river, they mentioned that the road was rough in parts but it's the gullies you have to watch for.  A slow pace both in and out is needed.  Dad set off into the wide blue yonder with enthusiasm but cautious enthusiasm.  The gullies were something you had to be aware of, as we were going through rarely used cattle station roads as we made our way south.  For the next 50kms or so we were going through gully after gully, some less than 50 metres apart.  The passengers handled this very well, no complaints, just wanting to make sure that the road is getting us closer to Cairns.  They knew a swimming pool was waiting for them there.

The front passenger got some excercise as well opening and closing gates particularly around the wildlife reserves and stations.  About 10 gates in total.

 One of the gates for Kondoparinga station

Although the ups and downs were making for some slow going, a lot of 1st and 2nd gear was chewing juice as well.  We were looking around the 19ltrs per hundred, the highest on the trip so far.  This with only 20 litres of fuel to get us to Dimbulah.

The country side was simply stunning, feeling nice and isolated with no one else seemingly on the road we came across Mount Mulligan.  Wow what an impressive piece of rock.

 Mount Mulligan from a distance

 This one a little closer, Chris climbed on Charlie's roof for this shot.

At the 60 km mark we came across a cemetery, it was the town of Mt Mulligan's. Mt Mulligan was a town, centred around the coal mine under Mt Mulligan.  On the 9th September 1921, the town changed forever with the second largest mining tragedy in Australia's mining history, a total of 66 people died out of a town of 300.  The cemetery didn't exist before the disaster, there was no need.  It was filled with those that lost their live's, sometimes 2 or 3 from the same family.  Just imagining of what it would have been like was quite an experience. Surprising the town survived after the disaster and through the Great Depression.  It closed down a year after the coal mine did in 1958.

We noted that the Cairns 4wd club was proudly maintaining the cemetery and town surrounds. Signs have been put up for where each of the old buildings, boilers, brick kilns etc were, and it gave a real sense of the town even though all that was left were ruins.  Chris and Dad commented that maybe one day this is what Weipa will be like unless they diversify!

 Charlie at the cemetry

 Boiler stack

 Brick kiln or world largest pizza oven!

We continued on the road towards Dimbulah.  The road although dirt was meant to be much improved.  It wasn't.  What improved in gullies, it made up for in corrugations.  By the end of the road where it became tar, all involved particularly dad was well and truely over the bumps!  We had just on a quarter tank of fuel left, perfect to top up at Dimbulah.

The town was a lovely place, quiet with tractor in a concrete block.  Reminded us of Radiator Springs from the movie Cars!  It was a tobacco town, with kilns dotted all round the landscape.  One thing we noticed was it had full telstra and Optus coverage.  After a quick town stop, the kids had a play in the park after having wraps with leftovers or oysters and biscuits.  We cut a rough diet here we do!  To treat us all for being so patient while we drove the bumpy road we picked up some ice creams and wanders the town streets taking in the sights.  

 A quirky cafe in Dimbulah that doesn't open Mondays or Tuesdays.

Dad took Charlie off to be topped up.  Came back empty handed, the town had two petrol stations, one wasn't expecting the fuel truck till the next day, the second one was closed until 3 o'clock.  So we jumped back in and took the risk to make it Mareeba, a town that is sure to not have fuel supply issues.  The light came on about 10 km from Mareeba.  We done a total of 849.5 km on 120ltrs of fuel from Weipa, over some pretty rough country.  An average of 14.13, pretty impressive for Charlie!

Well we rolled into Cairns just after 5pm, it had been a long day.  We checked into our campsite and setup camp.  Turns out the people next door were ones that we had met on the track.  They were the family taking the Kimberley Kamper.  The kids clicked again and they were off.

Earlier in the day,  Katie had asked the boys if they could have anything they wanted for dinner what would it be.  We thought given we were coming into a major centre the chances of us being able to forefill any (reasonable) requests would be pretty good.  The reply floored us all - "sausages and bread"!  Here Katie has been making these amazing meals, and all they wanted was plain jane!  So that what we had, BBQ with bread!  Simple, quick and cuts down the dishes!

All in bed by 10:00, it was a special night for TV so boys were watching Octonauts and playing games on the phones.