We left Melbourne still a little jet lagged and headed to the campervan pick up point. Now we have used Apollo once before and were not over impressed but as they did a good deal (at least that's what I thought) we used them again. The vans nice, will certainly be faster than Arthur, but it's not the same as having your own vehicle.

After getting the campervan (Syd) we headed north. I estimated we had around 3200km to drive to get to Cooktown. I had allowed 7 days for this epic drive. We thought we would drive along an inland route and then back down the coast. The vast inland area of outback is quite spectacular. Not just its vastness which alone was a little overwhelming but the colours. The soil ranges from deep red through rich orange to a soft cream. Above this is the pale dry grass with scattered slim trunked trees some flowering with no sign of leaves, reminding me of a Hockney painting. The whole is topped by the most dazzling blue sky with the occasional puffy white cloud rather like a Constable sky.

After 3 days of nothing but this (despite it being quite spectacular) we did wonder about our chosen route! We still had 3 more days driving through it. Towns are few and far between and as with Argentina I did wonder what people did all day as some of the homesteads were a very long way from anything and if you didn't get on with your neighbours (and they could be quite a distance) you could go a long time without seeing anyone. The small towns we passed through were rather hillbillyish reminding us of southern USA towns and most appeared rather deserted when we drove through. We did see lots of kangaroos or wallabies (not sure yet of the difference) and emus (no photos as we were moving quite fast) and some impressively coloured birds (no photos as they were moving very fast).

We stopped at a small town by a very large lake which had a museum dedicated to the Catalina sea planes. Peter went in to explore while I had a nap as jet lag was still affecting me. It was used as a repair station for the planes during WWII after Japan bombed the bases in the north.

The area around southern New South Wales and the Victoria coastline has been suffering from flooding. The worst since the 70's. At the first campsite the owner advised us to check as some roads were being closed. This was a little worrying as there aren’t that many roads in the first place. We decided to check with the local police and they advised one town called Forbes was so badly affected it was being evacuated. Guess what- yes that’s the road we wanted to be on. So we took an alternative route. As we drove north we saw evidence of the flooding but managed to avoid it, except some largish puddles over the road. The deepest was 0.2 metres.

You get the impression flooding in this area is a norm as most towns have signs showing the major routes and if they are open or closed. I can see why as there are some impressively large rivers running through the area. At one town we saw a flock of Pelicans which I thought were sea birds. Obviously large rivers are just as good for them.

The second night we camped wild by the roadside’ outside a small settlement, with 6 brand new John Deare combine harvesters that were also heading north. Luckily they all went to spend the night in a hotel so it was lovely and quiet until they set of at 5.40 the next morning.

Driving along you see lots of other campervans and they acknowledge you by lifting a finger without taking their hands of the steering wheel. Peter decided to respond likewise but you do need to be flexible. He decided not to instigate 'the finger’ as he said he didn’t want to appear too forward.

After 4 days driving (starting at 06.00 each day) we reached Charters Towers an old gold mining town with some nice old buildings dating to the late 1800’s. The town was nicknamed 'the world’. Gold was discovered in 1871 and quickly the town appeared. Total gold production between 1872 and 1911 was a massive 6 million ounces (around £15 million). Money was needed to fund the mining of the deeper seams so in 1886 one hundred tons of ore was shipped to England for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition. A small battery (ore crusher) was erected and the ore crushed in front of 5 million visitors. The sight of the 33.3kg cake of gold soon had the investors clamouring for a piece of the action. Most of the mine seemed to run under the town and the deepest shaft was 3000ft. Bit worrying if you had your house over it. 29 crushing mills broke the ore up. From 1911 it went into decline but has picked up a bit as modern techniques have enabled them to get gold out of the original spoil.

On outskirt of town is the Venus battery Mill the largest surviving battery relic in Australia.
We decided to go for the 10.00 tour before we left town. We parked outside and went in at 10.01 and asked about the tour. The guide looked just like an1800s era gold miner with long grey beard and waistcoat, but boy was he odd. He said yes there is a10.00 tour but as no one was here at 10.00 he was closing. Not a good start I thought. We paid and set of on the tour having the distinct impression that he was sick to death of tourists and giving tours. We tried to show interest but it wasn’t easy. He explained all about the smashing of the ore and gold extraction with mercury and that the stuff left over (the tailings) was discarded any old place. Later it was found that more gold could be extracted from the tailings using cyanide. I asked who owned the tailings and he replied 'why?’ Now I thought it was a sensible question as the original ore was owned by the mine so presumably the tailings were as well but as it was all over the place I was curious as to what happened. He begrudgingly acknowledge that maybe it was a sensible question but it did rather put me off asking anymore. We both had to try hard not to chuckle at how odd he was.

After this we left Charters Towers and headed north to our first scheduled stop Undara lava tubes. The temperature hit 35 degrees on the way which was a little on the hot side. Luckily Syd has air conditioning which has been put to good use. The road to Undara is used by road trains (these are extra-long articulated trucks with three or more trailers) and where the road is only single lane width it’s you that has to drive off the road to let them pass. You don’t really have a choice as they don’t budge. Luckily that only happened twice but it is obviously a common occurrence as they have a UHF channel you can tune into to hear where they are.

We camped at the busy (its half term here) Undara lodge just outside the National Parkand and booked onto the 8.00 tour of the lava tubes before retiring to Syd, with the air conditioning on full blast!